{"id":1043,"date":"2020-03-08T01:45:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T01:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/2020\/03\/08\/diana-nyad-the-only-one-who-knows\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:30:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:30:54","slug":"diana-nyad-the-only-one-who-knows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/diana-nyad-the-only-one-who-knows\/","title":{"rendered":"Diana Nyad, The Only One Who Knows"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Update 19 Mar 2025:<\/strong> Kenshoo overhauled their website after I published this. Most or all of the original pages have disappeared. Kenshoo also removed its video of Nyad’s presentation from YouTube. I have pointed the Kenshoo links to archived pages and clips.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

A Sport Beyond<\/h3>\n

1968 was not a good year for Diana Nyad.<\/p>\n

Her beloved high school coach, Jack Nelson, had promised her (or so she thought) that her zeal would win her an Olympic medal.\u00a0 With the Mexico City games on the horizon, Nyad scrambled to make the trials. But no matter how hard she swam, she couldn\u2019t swim fast enough to qualify. And so ended the first of her aquatic dreams.
\n<\/p>\n

Reeling from the failure and the loss of purpose, ravenous for attention, she tried to parachute from the 4th floor of her Emory University dormitory. The stunt got her expelled.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
William Forrest \u201cBuck\u201d Dawson. Image via International Swimming Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enter Buck Dawson, executive director of the International Swimming Hall of Fame at the time. Dawson and his pal, Joe Grossman, were on the prowl for fresh faces<\/a> (preferably female) to gin up the pro swimming tour. And Diana Nyad desperately needed a new raison d\u2019\u00eatre. <\/em>For the two veteran promoters and the one blossoming self-promoter, it was a match made in swimming heaven.<\/p>\n

And so it came to pass that, on Sunday, July 26, 1970, Diana Nyad found herself on the shore of Lake Ontario in Hamilton, ON. She was there to compete in her first professional race, the 10-mile Labatt\u2019s International Championship<\/a>. Beside her stood some of the greatest swimmers of the era: Johan Schans, Horacio Iglesias, Abdel Latif Abou Heif, Jon Erikson, and 5-time (ultimately 6-time) world champion Judith de Nijs.<\/p>\n

Thirty swimmers started the race. Twenty-five finished. Nyad placed 10th in 4:23, managing to beat out de Nijs, who finished 13th, by twelve minutes.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the story Nyad told in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

One day I was here at NYU, I was swimming in a city pool, and a graduate school colleague of mine stopped me, and he said, \u201cI see you, I see that perfect streamline stroke of yours. I see the fire in the belly. You know, there is a sport beyond sprinting. There\u2019s a sport of marathon swimming.\u201d (17:34\/clip<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Nyad didn\u2019t enroll at NYU until 1973<\/a>, so three years after Buck Dawson introduced her to marathon swimming.<\/p>\n

I finished third among the 444 that day, and Judith de Nijs, who finished 10th, announced her retirement the next day. So, you know, you don\u2019t want to kick someone out of the sport all together, but it is an empowering feeling. (21:14\/clip<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, that feeling of strength when you kick someone while they\u2019re down. Reminds me of another of Nyad\u2019s declarations of compassion. The day after her Cuba-Florida crossing, she agreed that she rooted for Chlo\u00eb McCardel to fail in her Cuba-Florida attempt. But \u201cI didn\u2019t want her to be stung, or really hurt, or die.\u201d<\/p>\n