Aussie McCardel to forgo shark cage on Cuba-US swim

Australian swimmer Chloe McCardel will jump into the Florida Straits this week hoping to become the first to cross them swimming through the shark-infested sea without a protective cage.

“I think it will take approximately sixty hours to make the journey,” McCardel, 28, told reporters ahead of the 170-kilometer challenge that will pit her strength against that daunting distance, plus jellyfish and powerful currents.

She is scheduled to set out from Havana’s Hemingway Marina Wednesday at 1400 GMT.

McCardel, who was awarded the Channel Swimming Association’s Sotiraki Cup in both 2011 and 2012, says there are many reasons she is taking on the challenge.

“First of all, is the (world) record. This swim is 50% further than any person successfully swam between two points of land in the ocean,” she explained.

Secondly, she said, was a political wish for Cuba and the neighboring United States. The Cold War enemies still do not even have full diplomatic relations.

“I would like to encourage great relations between Cuba and the US and would like to encourage many tourists from around the world to come and visit this beautiful country,” McCardel said.

“The third reason is also very important to me: my mom had breast cancer when I was 14, and I’m doing this for people who have cancer and may have cancer in the future,” she said.

McCardel said that she will not be doing the swim with a shark cage, a protective neoprene suit or swim fins. It will be just her suit, rubber cap and goggles.

And the swimmer said she will cover her body in a type of grease to protect herself from sun and cold; she will be fed every 30 minutes with a special liquid nutrition drink with vitamins and minerals.

If she can hold out and make the crossing, McCardel will hold a new record in unassisted nonstop distance swimming, breaking the record set by British-Australian Penny Palfrey, who swam 108 kilometers in the same strait in 2011.

Many swimmers have tried but failed at making the same crossing. The most recent was American Diana Nyad, 63, who abandoned her bid earlier this year, plagued by storms, hypothermia and jellyfish.

Fellow Aussie Susan Maroney is the first and only person to have swum across the Straits. She did it in 1997, at age 22, but used a shark cage for the mammoth effort.