I got a sense early that life would go by alarmingly fast. At 9 years old I used to imagine being my age now and thinking I had to sleep less so I could do more.

As a teen, I just wanted to be a student and an athlete. But sexual abuse by my swim coach—starting when I was 14—threw me into silence and humiliation. I have tried to let go of anger. At 74, I’m living the best life I can. But you don’t say to someone who’s been through a trauma, “Are you over it?” They’re not and never will be.

In high school I didn’t know gay people, didn’t see them on TV, didn’t have gay friends. I came out at 21 and have been open and proud since. I’ve also been madly in love three times and am still close to each of those women.

In my 20s, I took up marathon swimming. I swam around Manhattan in 1975. Three years later I attempted to swim from Havana to Key West—and failed. In 1979, I swam 102 miles from the Bahamas to Florida. Then I gave up swimming for 30 years.

As a broadcaster, I covered the Olympics, tennis, the NYC Marathon, and more—I thought there would be enough art and talent in reporting to keep me engaged. But it started to run thin.

When I turned 60 in 2009, I wondered, Is this how I want to spend my life? I wanted to be a doer again. So I got back in the water and set my sights on the Cuba-to-Florida swim. I failed three more times.

I was a better endurance athlete in my 60s than in my 20s and finally completed the Cuba-to-Florida swim in 2013 at age 64, in just under 53 hours. When I got to Key West I said to the crowd: “Never ever give up. You’re never too old to chase your dreams.” And: “It looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team.”

I competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2014 and in 2015 published a memoir. My friend Bonnie Stoll and I started EverWalk in 2016 to give people a sense of moving under their own steam and taking in this planet. We want to turn America into a nation of walkers.

I meet astounding people every day. No one will ever know them, but they’re doing courageous things. I’m nothing special compared to all those people. —As told to Rachel Toor