How to Prove that You Swam 100+ Miles

2 thoughts on “How to Prove that You Swam 100+ Miles”

1. I came to this website out of curiosity after watching the Nyad documentary. I watched the movie “Nyad” a while back and found it interesting. I remembered in the movie they made a big deal about the rules. The documentary is full of footage from the 2nd-3rd attempts and some from the 4th-5th, I became curious why in her 2nd attempt the doctor was touching her and why in her 3rd and 4th attempts she was touching the back of the boat thing (not sure what it’s called) . I also found it strange that they didn’t include almost any footage from the 5th attempt in the documentary. Just the structure of the documentary was odd.

   Diana did swim dozens of miles in the Florida Straits and that takes major guts. I’ll respect that regardless, but I can see now from reading this site why people in marathon swimming don’t respect her and are frustrated by the attention and publicity she’s garnered over the years because of her lying, exaggerations and her charismatic persona and because the field in question is relatively unknown. This phenomenon happens in many fields.

   The arguments that are made on this website vary in terms of clarity and how compelling they are. Some of them feel like a reach logically or just personally vindictive. And being someone who’s not part of the swim community, I don’t really care if Nyad lies generally. It doesn’t affect me. I just care if she lies about this. But each their own.

   This page makes it really clear why the swim was not legitimate. That’s important for audiences to understand how to get past the spin and to put some balance on the Nyad story. After reading through the site I feel pretty clear that Nyad followed the “do what you need to get through it and worry about the rules later” approach which makes sense with the footage in the documentary. My guess is that she started out optimistic of being able to finish within some rules and tried to do them, but then realized it wasn’t going to happen within the rules and therefore put them aside.

   I do think she has guts. Not much can change my mind on that. Others do too, but hell. I’ve seen it myself in the footage.

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   1. Dizzy,

      Thanks for reading so carefully.

      I also found it strange that they didn’t include almost any footage from the 5th attempt in the documentary. Just the structure of the documentary was odd.

      There’s a good reason for both: Timothy Wheeler — Nyad’s nephew and the doc’s director — had essentially finished the film months before Nyad made her fifth attempt. Wheeler entered it in spring 2013 film festivals — it debuted in March 2013 at SXSW and went on from there.

      The day after the crossing, Nyad talked about the film, noting that “Tim also was here [in Key West] yesterday, shooting so that he can massage that ending that I wanted.” (See press conference at 49:50.)

      I don’t really care if Nyad lies generally. It doesn’t affect me. I just care if she lies about this.

      I understand that many people feel that way. However, her extracurricular lying does effect this (the swim). She’s a serial liar. She lies about everything. That tells me she’d lie about the crossing, too.

      And she has lied about it. Some examples: She said her observers kept minute-by-minute notes. She said the World Open Water Swimming Association ratified her swim. Most importantly, she initially said no one touched her. That may not seem like a big deal to non-marathon-swimmers. But to those in the sport, it’s huge. She broke the cardinal rule of marathon swimming over and over and over, then lied about it.

      This page makes it really clear why the swim was not legitimate. That’s important for audiences to understand how to get past the spin and to put some balance on the Nyad story.

      Thanks for pointing this out. After I update it, I might write something about that.

      Reply