What follows is a lightly edited version of a recent Facebook post. That version did not meet the high visual standards the Annex demands (i.e., it looked really ugly), hence its reappearance here.
<°))̂)̖)>< ><((̗(̂(°>
“Meet Diana Nyad: Epic Adventurer Who Refuses To Accept Defeat” (Self Made, 22 Oct 2018)
Have I mentioned that Diana Nyad occasionally stretches the truth? She gave it a real workout in this recent interview with Nely Galán. Below the video, you will find an accounting of Nyad’s Self Made fictions.
As part of the festivities surrounding the 5th anniversary of Diana Nyad’s Cuba-Florida crossing, this open letter to the most reputable historians revisits one of Nyad’s biggest lies.
15 September 2018
Dear Reputable Historians,
You’ll recall that, back in 2011, CNN caught Diana Nyad lying about being the first woman to swim around Manhattan Island. In response, Ms. Nyad posted and quickly deleted a disingenuous non-apology. You can still find it here.
An excerpt:
The history is unclear. The dissemination of accurate information has not followed an empirical path. I am waiting for the most reputable historians of the sport to dig further and publish their research as to their collective best versions as to who did in fact circle Manhattan, when and how.
Screenshot from “Swim around Manhattan–outtakes” (via MIRC) showing Anne Priller Benoit joking with an unidentified competitor before the start of the 1930 race around Manhattan. Benoit finished 5th overall and 1st among the women.
I write to you hoping that you’ll grab your shovels and resume digging.
Diana Nyad again demonstrates her abysmal kindness and generosity while talking about all of the good that she does in the world.
In Tuesday’s Facebook Live installment—“SHARE with us YOUR Xtreme Dreams! Are you fulfilling your potential? What do you imagine doing with your next five years? Inspire us all by commenting below…”—Diana’s followers did not let her down. Check out the torrent of reverential responses: “You are my idol.” “You are an inspiration to us all!” “You are so great! !!!!!!!!” etc.
Here in the eye of the Cult of Diana storm, Nyad continues to construct a levee against the flood of those who know her to be a charlatan. How could Diana—she who causeth the waters to part, the sitters to walk, and the smokers to smoketh not—ever lie? Wouldn’t happen in a million years, or so her believers can’t help but believe. (C.f. Lance Armstrong and LiveStrong.)
Diana Nyad got through this paean to herself with a few well-worn fabrications, a warning about a future endeavor, and one horrifying episode of insensitivity.
Diane Strubel whispering to “I’ve Got a Secret” host Garry Moore, 4 Nov 1959. (Full episode here.) Diana Nyad swam around Manhattan in 1975 and still claims to be the first woman to do so. She was the seventh.
Yesterday’s Facebook Live Video — “Join us in celebration, today, the 5th Anniversary of the Cuba Swim Expedition…”—mainly involved Diana Nyad, before a small audience on the deck of a boat, talking about herself. She also introduced friends and family who, when they spoke, talked about Diana Nyad.
She couldn’t get through her part without a nod to the backlist:
The best men, women, fast, strong, young swimmers in the world have tried this swim. It’s the Mt. Everest of the earth’s oceans.
To review: Only five people besides Nyad have attempted solo crossings of the Florida Strait (see “Everybody’s Doin’ It“). And the Florida Strait is NOT the Mt. Everest of the earth’s oceans. Only one person claims that it is (see “p. 244“).
Earlier, Nyad had enumerated her bilge-bucket list of what “the next things are.” Here’s the final entry:
I want to perform on stage and bring this story to life in a dramatic, storytelling way, and be known as one of the better storytellers of our time.
To verify her 2013 Cuba-Florida crossing and protect herself from skeptics, why didn’t Diana Nyad film the entire 2013 attempt? Because she was protecting herself by NOT filming the crossing.
Members of Nyad’s crew filmed parts of the swim. Within a few months of her 2013 conquest, however, almost all video from the event disappeared.
For example:
An entry on Nyad’s blog purports to show “some of the best footage we’ve seen of Diana swimming.” Gone. (As of 21 Sep 2023, the blog page is also gone. You can find an archived version here.)
Wall St. Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou, in his recent book BAD BLOOD, writes about a charismatic, driven woman who professes that nothing is impossible if you only just believe hard enough. No, he wasn’t talking about Diana Nyad, he was talking about Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of the disgraced medical technology firm Theranos.
Turns out it takes a bit more than that.
In March, the SEC charged Holmes with “massive fraud.” Last month, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California indicted Holmes for wire fraud and conspiracy.
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.
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:
2004: Journalist Ben Hammersley coins the word “podcast.”
2017: Oprah launches Super Soul Conversations, a podcast that includes audio versions of her old video interviews, notably (for our purposes) the one that Nyad gave back in 2013.
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)
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.”
