The Truth About Diana Nyad
We can now prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Diana Nyad lied about being in every book of aptonyms. Also: It appears that there may have been another wife in the life of Diana’s father, Aris.
Let’s review. In Find a Way, Nyad writes:
Today I’m listed in all those books where people live out the meaning of their names, a phenomenon referred to by the term “aptonym.” (p. 44)
In a previous post, I wrote that I could only find one such book: Steven Busalaachi’s Wacky News Names. I recently bought a copy and learned that not only did Busalaachi leave Nyad out of his book, he described why he left her out, naming her specifically. From the introduction:
“Another Day, Another Interview” returns with a closer look at Diana Nyad’s 2013 Super Soul Sunday interview. It’s all here: the lies, the hyperbole, the obsequiousness, my dog.
Ever on the lookout for opportunities to pander to her enablers, Diana Nyad wrote on Facebook a few months ago:
Oprah Winfrey has turned her television series SuperSoul Sunday into a podcast.
Podcasts are the platform du jour and Oprah, per usual, leads the pack. [May 31, 2018]
A brief history of podcasting may be in order:
Oprah may lead the pack in some areas, but podcasting is not one of them. The new incarnation of Nyad’s interview, however, prompted me to have another listen, and what a special listen it was. Hang onto your swim caps because, as Oprah says:
Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. (:16)
Continue reading “Another Day, Another Interview, v. 2: “My Lord, Will You Leave the Woman Alone?!””
Two former US Navy SEALs interview Diana and discover, among other things, that she grew up in Paris and that she has set her sights on Broadway.
I’ve got a backlog of Nyad interviews to examine. Starting with this one, I’m going to try to move through them quickly, listing the lies while commenting only briefly.
Why bother looking for more of Nyad’s deceptions after listing so many already? The higher the pile of fabrications, the more evidence that Diana Nyad is a compulsive liar and a fraud. And maybe, at some point, the pile will get so high that it will be impossible to ignore.
Continue reading “Another Day, Another Interview: TEAM NEVER QUIT”
Forget the World Cup, the Mueller investigation, global warming, and right-wing extremism. The wait is over: Diana Nyad has crowned the top three distance swimmers in the world.
Last August, the Platypus Institute’s NeuronFire podcast aired an interview with Diana Nyad. Regular visitors to the Annex will recognize most of the tales that Nyad tells host David Bach, M.D. — the lethality of box jellyfish, for instance, and the hordes of swimmers lined up to swim “the Mount Everest of Earth’s Oceans.” But Nyad came up with some new material for the occasion. Of that material, one gem, one precious opal of nonsense, shines out above the rest: Nyad names the three greatest marathon swimmers on earth. After doing so, she attacks the two who aren’t her.
Continue reading “Nyad names the three best distance swimmers on the planet. You’ll have to guess the other two.”
I recently stumbled on Wendy Lawrence’s 1978 article about Nyad’s first Cuba-Florida attempt: “The Sea Spoils a Dream.” My favorite bit is the photo below. It shows Olympic gold medalist Donna de Varona and others at the end of the adventure.
Some other things we’ve been doing here at the Annex:
Continue reading “Annex Update: “The Sea Spoils a Dream,” Nyad Rakes in the Spoils, and a Runt Spoils for a Fight”
In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb became the first human to swim across the English Channel. One hundred years later, the Channel Swimming Association published the Centenary edition of their Channel Swimming Handbook. Diana Nyad didn’t like some of the facts it cites, so she made up alternative ones.
Update 22 Feb 2021: Added that Webb attempted to cross the Niagara River below the falls, not above them (thanks to information provided by a well-informed reader).
In the summer of 1976, Diana Nyad flies to England…
happily accompanied by my two closest friends . . . and by an American film crew of seven. We were off to make, assist, and record history. I was attempting to become the first woman to complete the double crossing of the English Channel. (Other Shores, 1978, p. 121)
During the flight, Nyad reads the Channel Swimming Association (CSA) handbook. “Who knows the story of Captain Matthew Webb . . . ?” she paraphrases:
Webb was the first to swim across. . . . Some weeks later Webb tried to cross the Niagara River four hundred meters above the falls; he is buried at the bottom. (p. 122)
The way Nyad describes it, Webb barely had time to dry off before steaming across the Atlantic. Once in the U.S., he’d have to race for Niagara and immediately jump back in the water.
In these tumultuous times, we all need something to hang onto.
drogue: a device, typically conical or funnel-shaped with open ends, towed behind a boat, aircraft, or other moving object to reduce speed or improve stability.
I had thought that during her Cuba-to-Florida crossing, Diana Nyad rested in one of two ways: she held onto (or hooked onto) her “directional streamer,” or she snoozed on the boat, possibly while someone swam in her place. Maybe both.
But Nyad’s guide boat just dragged another option into the picture. Once you see it, you’ll grasp the possibilities immediately.
In this second of three posts about Diana’s deceptions, we’ll look at why she can’t stop making stuff up.
We know that Diana Nyad lies. She lies frequently, brazenly, and — in all likelihood — compulsively. But why?
She lies because she can’t live without adoration. To receive that adoration, Nyad must be the best — must be “epic” — at everything she does. She must swim epically, play squash epically, even wake up epically.
But no one can be epic at everything, so Nyad must act and write and talk as if she is.
Above: Diana Nyad’s favorite word. With Marcia Cross at LiveTalksLA
Why does she need so much adoration? Maria Konnikova — journalist, professional poker player, and holder of a psychology PhD from Harvard — provides the answer in her 2011 article “Less Than Artful Choices: Narcissistic Personality Disorder According to Donald Trump.” Konnikova compares the utterances of the not-yet-president Donald Trump to the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).* You can plug in “Nyad” wherever you see “Trump,” and, voilá, the story still works.
Some excerpts from Helen Dudar’s “Diana Nyad’s Magnificent Obsession.”
I had been itching to get my hands on this article for months. The L.A. Central Library has New Times on microfilm, so I finally gritted my teeth and struck off down the 10. Turned out to be worth it just for the dune buggies. [Update: I can’t believe that I forgot to include the most egregious, self-serving, and grandiose bit. See the Gertrude Ederle quote below.]
“Diana Nyad’s Magnificent Obsession”
page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 |page 6
Some highlights:
Continue reading “Reykjavik Dune Buggy Assn. News”
The New York Times Opinion section’s Facebook Live event with Diana Nyad on Friday left plenty to talk about. I’d expect nothing less from a storyteller of Nyad’s caliber.
Update, 29 June 2019: Last August, the NY Times quietly issued a “correction” to a critical paragraph of the op-ed. Nyad’s detailed description of the time, date, and location of the first episode of alleged abuse (see previous post) now reads, “That summer, on the day of a swim meet, I went over to Coach’s house for a nap.”
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Diana Nyad’s conversation with Alicia Wittmeyer of the New York Times is the most disturbing thing I’ve heard from her. That’s saying a lot given the quantity of Nyad material that I’ve listened to in the last few years. The smugness, the fluidity of truth, the Trumpian rhetoric—it’s all there. But now she’s using her own alleged abuse to latch on to others’ horror to satisfy her own needs.
Nyad’s stories often shift from telling to telling. This time was no different. Continue reading “Diana’s Op-Ed Goes Live”
