Jellyfish, not sharks, nip at swimmer during Cuba to Florida record quest

Forget sharks — it was jellyfish that threatened endurance swimmer Diana Nyad as she set out over the weekend for a record-breaking Cuba-to-Florida swim.

Nyad, who turns 63 Wednesday, had logged 24 hours by late yesterday, wearing a head-to-toe bodysuit, after being stung multiple times on the neck, lips, hands and forehead by jellyfish in the warm Gulf waters.

This marks Nyad’s fourth attempt to swim the Florida Straits. At one point Saturday night, she switched to the backstroke — “I never do backstroke,” she told her minders — to protect her face from the jellyfish.

But by late yesterday, she was back to freestyle and showing no sign of fatigue.

“Today is more like swimming,” Nyad told crew members as she paused for a feeding. “I don’t know what you would call last night . . . probably surviving.”

Keeping up a 50-strokes-a-minute pace, she hopes to be off Key West by tomorrow afternoon.