Diana Nyad 'pulled from the water' as latest swim ends

Nyad's Twitter feed posted at 7:42 a.m. Eastern time that "Diana has been pulled from the water. We'll have more information when it becomes available." She had been swimming for 63 hours since leaving Cuba on Saturday, hoping to become the first swimmer to cross to Florida without a shark cage. She suffered numerous jellyfish stings overnight, plus a gathering lightning storm was viewed as a danger to her.

"With all the threats continuing, Diana decided that it was not a risk that we wanted to take," Mark Sollinger, Nyad's operations chief, told CNN this morning.

Nyad's lips and face are swollen, but she is holding up "as well as someone who just spent 63 hours" performing a "monumental and extremely dangerous" feat, Sollinger told CNN's "Early Start with Soledad O'Brien."

Sollinger described her achievement as "huge," despite having to stop before she reached Florida.

"It's a cross between being down, being so tired because everyone wanted this so much, and a huge sense of accomplishment," he said. "Nobody in the world would even attempt this, but we did."

This was Nyad's fourth attempt to cross the Florida Strait. The longtime KCRW and sports commentator turns 63 on Wednesday.