“As a child growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Diana Nyad was a champion pool swimmer.”
Nyad won the Florida High School Class A title in the 100-yard backstroke in 1964 and 1967. That was the extent of her championship pool swimming. In neither year was she the fastest high-schooler in Florida, and many young women nationwide were far faster.
The Facts
Nyad didn’t swim fast enough to qualify for the Nationals in either of those years. In 1964, 38 swimmers qualified in the 100 back and 37 in the 200. In 1967, 46 qualified in the 100 and 39 in the 200. All of them swam faster than Nyad.
She qualified for the Nationals twice in other years:
- 1966 Short Course Nationals in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
- Nyad swam 1:05.2 to place 19th in the 100-yard back. Fifteen-year-old Canadian Elaine Tanner, a.k.a. “Mighty Mouse,” won the event in 1:00.7.
- Nyad swam 2:35.5 to place 16th in the 200 back. Fifteen-year-old Judy Humbarger of Miami Shores won in 2:11.8.
- 1968 short course nationals at the University of Pittsburgh
- Nyad finished 36th in the 200-yard back in 2:22.7. Kaye Hall of Tacoma, Washington, finished first in 2:10.8. Hall went on to win a bronze medal in the 200 at the Mexico City Olympics and take gold while setting a world record in the 100.
Nyad knows her resume doesn’t support labeling herself “a champion pool swimmer,” so she often lies about her record. A few examples:
Sports Illustrated, 1971:
In the next three years she won the 100-yard backstroke at six state meets, but she never surpassed her 12th-place finish in the nationals.
Other Shores, 1978:
[Coach Jack Nelson] helped me improve enough within that first year to become the best in the state of Florida at both the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. (p. 17)
Philadelphia GeoFest, 2011:
And by the age of 14, I was the best in the state of Florida. This is elite swimming. There wasn’t a backstroker faster than me at 100, 200 meters. (5:52)
Find a Way, 2015:
It wasn’t long before I was the best back-stroker in the state of Florida. (p. 44)
“The Courage To Succeed,” 1997:
It came to be that when I was 16 years old I won the United States Nationals. I was the best in the United States. Later that summer, I broke the world record for the 100-meter back stroke. I was the best in the world!
(presentation to the American Railway Bridge & Building Association)
See this spreadsheet for all of Nyad’s available meet results from 1962 through 1968.
“[She] became one of the most renowned ocean swimmers in the world.”
Nyad’s renown comes not from her accomplishments but from her gift for PR.
The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame maintains a list of swimming accomplishments they call “The Majors.” Diana Nyad has completed four of them and won two. Only one of them, a race from Capri to Naples, took place in the ocean.
Nyad never finished a single major solo ocean swim. She once claimed that she completed and broke records in them all:
I became, in the 1970s, the best ocean swimmer in the world. I held all the major records on planet Earth, out in the open sea. (Wilshire Ebell—audio clip)
See “The Best of the ’70s” for sources and data.
An Alternative To Diana
World-record setter Katherine Rawls is a Fort Lauderdale swimmer worthy of a Florida State Historical Marker. No one needs to exaggerate Rawls’ accomplishments:
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- She was an inaugural inductee into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF).
- She won U.S. National championships in both swimming and diving. She also won Olympic medals in both sports.
- She lived in Fort Lauderdale and trained in the ISHOF’s Casino Pool in the 1930s. She officially opened the Hall’s new pool in 1965.
- A trained pilot, she retired from swimming in 1940 to fly military transport planes with the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.
No one deserves a Florida State Historical Marker more than Katherine Rawls.
