Diana Nyad Dares Her Dream at 61

Sixty may be the new sexy (see Wowowow.com's slideshow), but it also looks like 60 is the new inspired.

Diana Nyad sound familiar? She's the long-distance swimmer you may remember for setting the world's record for the longest ocean swim, from Bimini to Florida, in 1979. And she still holds it — for women and men.

Three decades on, a 61st birthday celebrated on August 22, and she's preparing to get in the water again — this time to swim from Cuba to Florida. It's a swim she tried to do over 30 years ago, but veered off course and never made it. Her 60th birthday ignited the desire to try again. (Listen to her explain why to the BBC here.)

It all began when her girl posse was planning a vacation several years to Turks & Caicos and two friends dropped out. "So we tried to get other friends to go and they kept saying, 'Well, OK, but I'm not going on the beach', or 'I'm not wearing a bathing suit'," remembers Bonnie Stoller, Nyad's friend and now business partner. How crazy is that, they thought: Women not enjoying their lives because they didn't want to put on a swimsuit. (Um, I've done that.)

"So Diana and I decided to change that!" Stoller says emphatically. They started Brava Body 5 years ago, an online workout system designed to make you "Fit & Fabulous at 50+".

Stoller, who used to be a professional racquetball player, is also a private fitness coach in L.A. She and Nyad designed a series of 20-minute videos "that you can do in the space of a beach towel," says Stoller, so women can walk down the street, or down the beach, and feel good about their bodies.

And then Nyad turned 60. "[T]his existential grappling about being 60..," she told CNN, led her to decision to get back in the water, after not swimming a stroke in 31 years.

"How many athletes have said, 'if I knew then, what I know now,'" Stoller says.

Forget athletes, how many of us? She says Nyad now has the right mindset to do it, and she's been training the body to go with it. But she not just doing the swim as a personal goal, Stoller insists, "She's doing it for the 60, 70, 40-year-olds out there who think their time is over. It's NOT."

Nyad told the New York Times:

Look at 60-year-olds today. They're not old, and I'm not old. I'm older than I was, yes. I'm slower than I was, but I'm still vital and I'm still powerful, and when I walk up on that shore in Florida, I want millions of those AARP sisters and brothers to look at me and say 'I'm going to go write that novel I thought it was too late to do. I'm going to go work in Africa on that farm that those people need help at. I'm going to adopt a child. It's not too late, I can still live my dreams.'"

They have the boats in place, and the team to protect her — she's swimming without a shark cage. Now they're just waiting for an all-clear with the weather.

The metaphors abound: veering off-course when you're young, swimming with sharks, getting a support system you can count on, and clear skies… We're all swimming with her in that deep water.

Ahh, but the swimsuit issue.

Stoller and Nyad had turned to Robin Piccone, a swimwear designer for over 35 years, to design a line for a Brava Body. Piccone, who is a client of Stoller's, admits she's been designing purely fashion swimwear. "Most of the women I design suits for never get them wet," she says.

But the suit she designed for Nyad had to be "workable in the water" — no metal, no chafing, "sleek, with no drag.… It's really form follows function," Piccone said, excited.

Still, she absolutely understands women's reticence. "It's really very little fabric," she laughs. "And it's absolutely the last thing [women] want to try on past the age of 17."

Fit is key, she says! And like bras, most women get it wrong.

Robin Piccone's tips:

• You think it fits because you can put it on. Not so. Women generally go too large. Baggy drawers is not a good look.

• Elastic should fit flat — not too tight; it shouldn't dig in anywhere.

• Support is essential. Adjustable straps are good because everyone's bust-to-shoulder ratio differs.

• Comfort is the most important thing, then fit. Style is the last thing.

• Don't wear an old T-shirt over it to hide; if you're going to draw attention, draw positive attention.

• This is one place where you really should go for quality fabric; it's a technical garment so it really makes a difference.

• Swimskirts rock! Don't go for the "old lady" suit yet. Swimskirts and swim shorts are a great option when you're not accustomed to feeling "naked" outdoors.

Armed with these tips, end-of-summer swimwear sales, and Diana Nyad's inspiration, you should be walking down the beach, and fulfilling a long-held dream, in no time.

As she said to KCRW:

I was experiencing what millions my age are feeling these days. Disenfranchised, no longer valued, terribly worried that my best days were behind me. Yet the business of life is to live large and you can dream at any age. To me the phrase "60 is the new 40" is not a joke. We baby boomers can put truth into those words. We are far from irrelevant at 60. We're now emotionally mature, brimming with wisdom and calm, still physically strong. This should be the prime of our lives. Training for this swim has filled me with the heartening, empowering conviction that it's never too late to chase your dream."

I hear that. What's your dream? (Besides maybe looking good in a swimsuit.)