WOWSA Director Sues Steven Munatones Et Al.

The complaint, which also names Arguelles and Gerry Rodrigues as defendants, alleges that Munatones never intended to follow the terms of the agreement. It further asserts that Munatones only signed so Fitzgerald would consent to the agreement’s stipulations, including a date-specific non-disclosure section that could be the entire reason Munatones wanted Fitzgerald’s signature.

(The complaint is publicly available for free on the San Francisco County Superior Court’s website., but I posted it here for easier access. The document includes The Dissolution Agreement as Exhibit A.)

In particular, the complaint alleges that, once the Dissolution Agreement took effect, Munatones and Rodrigues “orchestrated a scheme” to remove Fitzgerald as the Open Water Swimming Facebook group’s administrator — despite the agreement making Fitzgerald the group’s sole owner.

Munatones and Rodrigues succeeded in removing Fitzgerald and now administer the group.

The complaint’s “Factual Background” section describes some of the events that led to WOWSA’s dissolution. Fitzgerald alleges that Munatones damaged WOWSA’s reputation by

• fabricating a false organization “for the sake of certifying certain open water swimming endeavor(s).”
• ratifying swims with inadequate evidence. The complaint cites the example of Munatones unilaterally and falsely ratifying Diana Nyad’s Cuba-Florida crossing in WOWSA’s name.
•  altering “over 3,300” records on Openwaterpedia to help Nyad’s chances for induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
• using his position at WOWSA “to offer preferential treatment to athletes” who promoted KAATSU, a company of which Munatones is the co-founder and CEO. See, for instance, fitness influencer and stunt swimmer Ross Edgley showing actor Chris Hemsworth how to use KAATSU armbands, and Munatones’ frequent blog posts about Edgley.

Why This Lawsuit Isn’t Just a Squabble Over a Facebook Group

Steven Munatones spent months sabotaging Openwaterpedia, a WOWSA website, to benefit his friend, Diana Nyad. Between February and July of 2019, he altered over 3,300 Openwaterpedia entries. The specificity of the Dissolution Agreement’s non-disclosure section suggests that he was desperate to keep the proof secret:

Munatones hasn’t just lied and manipulated data for Nyad. He has claimed fraudulent swims for himself, including a Tsugaru Strait two-way and a Catalina Channel Free Solo; and he invented a Tsugaru three-way and other records for a swimmer who had no idea what Steven had done in her name. Two years ago, he was ready to ratify — in WOWSA’s name — Tunisian swimmer Nejib Belhedi’s claimed 64-hour swim between Italy and Tunisia. However, before he could do that, a WOWSA investigation found Belhedi had spent hours aboard his guide boat during the crossing.

Fitzgerald’s suit is about trust. If we can’t trust the people making judgments about marathon swimming, then we can’t trust the integrity of their decisions.

I received crucial help from two Friends of the Annex while assembling this post. The legal knowledge of one — and their ability to see the kelp forest for the fronds — made this post much better than it would have been otherwise. The technical skills of the other Friend of the Annex saved the blog from oblivion after it had been hacked, making all posts inaccessible.