{"id":1209,"date":"2021-08-17T20:53:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T20:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/2021\/08\/17\/a-2013-interview-sheds-light-on-a-new-nyad-defender\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T17:23:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:23:50","slug":"a-2013-interview-sheds-light-on-a-new-nyad-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/a-2013-interview-sheds-light-on-a-new-nyad-defender\/","title":{"rendered":"A 2013 Interview Sheds Light On a New Nyad Defender"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diana Nyad\u2019s recent Facebook post<\/a> about an upcoming speaking gig sent Bill Poett to the moon:<\/p>\n

This makes me super happy, your interview was one of the highlights of my show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When swimmer Lisa Amorao pointed out that \u201cDiana Nyad is the biggest fraud in marathon swimming,\u201d Poett took offense, equating truth with hate:<\/p>\n

not sure why you got to pass on hate, her swim from Cuba to Florida was no fraud so you might want to stand down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAmorao offered Poett a way to check the facts,<\/a>\u00a0but his follow-up message suggests he declined the opportunity:<\/p>\n

this post represents one of the worst things about Facebook I wasn\u2019t talking to you or about you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Screenshot of Poett thread here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

~~~<\/p>\n

What prompted Poett\u2019s responses? Clearly, he\u2019s a believer who, like many others, has invested so much of himself in the Nyad myth that he blinds himself to contradictory evidence<\/a>. When he interviews Nyad, his complete capitulation to Nyad\u2019s con becomes obvious.<\/p>\n

Before we get to that, though, here\u2019s a bit of background.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

William De La Guerra Poett is a direct descendant of the Guerra<\/a> family,\u00a0 prominent Californio<\/a> ranchers. They came from Spain and settled in and around Santa Barbara in the late 1700s.<\/p>\n

About four years ago, Poett co-founded the business consulting firm 9Q Solutions<\/a>. According to its website, 9Q is \u201cthe world\u2019s first consulting and education company specializing specifically in energetic intelligence training designed to prepare you for the disruptions and opportunities of this new age.\u201d Some part of Poett\u2019s family still owns and operates Lompoc\u2019s less ambiguous Rancho San Julian.<\/a><\/p>\n

From December 2012 through September 2013, Poett hosted a podcast, Positively Speaking. <\/em>It ran for 34 episodes. Nyad appeared on the podcast in May 2013. You can still find that audio at archive.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Update, 18 Nov 2024: Positively Speaking audio files disappeared from archive.org and, as far as I can tell, everywhere else. I’ve archived the episode here<\/a>.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Quoting the Dayton Daily News<\/a><\/em>, Poett introduces Nyad as \u201cthe toughest athlete in the world.\u201d In the agonizingly obsequious dialogue that follows, he elicits some fascinating responses, perhaps because his interviewee feels venerated in the manner to which she deems herself entitled.<\/p>\n

Three of Nyad\u2019s responses stand out:<\/p>\n

#1 \u2013 On Other Swimmers<\/h5>\n

People who follow me, you know, who root for me, who have some interest in what I say, how I live \u2014 none of them are swimmers, frankly. None of them are athletes. Just about virtually none. (33:10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Diana has said this before, but never more decisively. Her statement is true, of course. Yet, I don\u2019t recall an interviewer asking her why<\/em> it\u2019s true. Maybe they assume that marathon swimmers care only about their own accomplishments. A trip<\/a> to Facebook<\/a> would quickly disprove<\/a> that assumption. (I\u2019ve linked to three semi-random Facebook pages. There are thousands more that would do just as well or better.)<\/p>\n

#2: Feigned Indifference<\/h5>\n

DNFCA Poetry Korner:<\/p>\n

The lady did too oft protest her lack<\/em>
\nof care o\u2019er one more Hall of Fame or plaque.<\/em>
\n\u201cI\u2019m telling you right now,\u201d she didst beseech,<\/em>
\n\u201cThe journey matters, not the goal of Smathers Beach.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I yearned for first,\u201d she later said.
\n<\/em>\u201cBut, sure, I\u2019m glad that Chlo\u00eb isn’t dead<\/a>.\u201d*
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

*Some Poetry Korner quotes are paraphrased.<\/p>\n

Nyad desperately wanted to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, or at least appear to be.\u00a0 But she also wanted to seem enlightened enough not to care. So, she finds multiple ways of saying, \u201cit\u2019s all about the journey\u201d:<\/p>\n

I want the values and the inner journey that comes out of this more than I want the moment of accolade and the moment of accomplishment that happens when you get to the beach. (34:45)<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t have to do with the athletic accomplishment. I\u2019m telling you right now, I don\u2019t care if I\u2019m the first anymore. I don\u2019t care if I set the record anymore. I don\u2019t care if I get into some new Hall of Fame because of the swim. Don\u2019t care at all. Don\u2019t care, you know, if it\u2019s even recognized anywhere. (36:12)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, \u201cthe journey\u201d only mattered to Diana Nyad if it ended at a Key West Beach, with the public convinced that she swam all the way from Cuba to Florida.<\/p>\n

You can only say \u201cI don\u2019t care\u201d so many times before it becomes undeniable that you do.<\/p>\n

#3 \u2013 The End is Near (and Known)<\/h5>\n

In the interview, Nyad accurately predicted the future. She knew that her swim would have difficulty receiving official recognition (\u201cDon\u2019t care, you know, if it\u2019s even recognized anywhere\u201d). She predicted that other swimmers would question her claims. And, most importantly, she knew that she would finish. Barring extreme circumstances (i.e., situations so dangerous to crew members that forcing them to proceed would expose her callousness), she knew ahead of time that she would reach Key West.<\/p>\n

But I can tell that there\u2019s almost nothing more to learn on this journey. And that\u2019s why I know, you know, I\u2019ve said it before. And there are plenty of journalists and my own friends who have said, Yeah, well, you know, you said after that first try in 2011. That was it. It\u2019s too big, it\u2019s too tough. It\u2019s too, you know, impossible. Move on to another dream.<\/p>\n

Well, whether I make it or not, I just know that the journey has come to the end of, as I say, it\u2019s discovery, by the end of this summer. And then I am on to, you know, all kinds of other thrilling moments, even if they may not be epic for the record books like this Cuba swim will be.<\/strong> (38:58 \u2014 listening to the clip<\/a> will give you a better sense of her absolute certainty)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In \u201cLessons Learned From Diana Nyad,\u201d<\/a> an article Nyad supporter\/collaborator Steven Munatones wrote while she was still swimming, he hinted that he knew she would finish. Not only does he write as if success is certain, but he also anticipates the reactions that an inadequately observed, rule-less swim would generate from fellow marathoners:<\/p>\n

Not everyone was in her camp and a few never will be. She faced derision from coaches and marathon swimmers; she faced numerous no-thank-yous from sponsors. She often faced disbelief and reluctance. She regularly faced suspicion and incredulity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many more than \u201ca few\u201d still refuse to camp with Diana.<\/p>\n

~~~<\/p>\n

More excerpts from Positively Speaking<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s Destiny, Part 1<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not a person who buys into destiny. (7:09)<\/p>\n

If we got to meet your great, great, great, great grandmother, would we say, \u201cOh, my God, Bill, you are exactly like her. It\u2019s just, it\u2019s uncanny.\u201d (7:40)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Funny she picked that example. How\u2019s this for uncanny: Nyad\u2019s great great great grandmother, Charlotte Winslow,\u202fis the namesake of the patent medicine that eventually funded Nyad\u2019s private-school education and her swimming career. Can one have a genetic disposition for chicanery? (See \u201cNo Syrup, No Swimmer.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

On the other hand, were we to meet one of Poett\u2019s great great great grandmothers, we might have the pleasure of Maria Antonia De La Guerra\u2019s company. She had eleven children. One of her sons, Pablo, is Poett\u2019s great great-great-grandfather. A daughter, Ana Maria, got married in Santa Barbara on January 24, 1836<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucky for us, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., was in town for the three-day celebration. In his magnificent Two Years Before the Mast <\/em>(1840), he describes the wedding. Here’s a sample:<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Plaque commemorating the visit of the Alert. City Hall, Santa Barbara. Via \u201cReason and Reflection<\/a>\u201d blog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don Juan [Bandini]<\/a> figured greatly, waltzing with the sister of the bride, (Donna Angustia<\/a>, a handsome woman and a general favorite) . . .<\/p>\n

A tall, stately Don, with immense grey whiskers, and a look of great importance, was standing before me, when I felt a light hand on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Donna Angustia . . . with her finger upon her lip, motioning me gently aside. I stepped back a little, when she went up behind the Don, and with one hand knocked off his huge sombrero, and at the same instant, with the other, broke the [cologne-filled] egg upon his head, and springing behind me, was out of sight in a moment. The Don turned slowly round, the cologne, running down his face, and over his clothes, and a loud laugh breaking out from every quarter. He looked round in vain, for some time, until the direction of so many laughing eyes showed him the fair offender. She was his niece, and a great favorite with him, so old Don Domingo had to join in the laugh. (ch. XXVII<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She Must Be Humble Because She Brags In The Second Person<\/h5>\n

Most who try to distance themselves from their narcissistic inclinations use the third person<\/a>. Nyad, ever the disrupter, goes with the second:<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m just dancing as fast and hard as I can every day in every direction. I don\u2019t think it matters, you know, what your, particular milieu is. Okay, you\u2019re, you\u2019re a swimmer, you graduated Phi Beta Kappa, you\u2019re, you know, you worked for the ABC Wide World of Sports, covered many Olympic Games. You know, you\u2019ve been inducted into many halls of fame, you\u2019ve got a lot of world records, you\u2019ve written three books, you speak a bunch of languages.<\/p>\n

Okay, you know, those are great. Those sound wonderful on a resume, you know. Is there, are those, is that list any, you know, more admirable than someone else\u2019s list? Honestly, I don\u2019t know and I don\u2019t care. [Then why did she bring it up?]<\/em><\/p>\n

I used to buy into all that stuff a lot. And I\u2019m just, I\u2019m just not living for those, you know, particular societal pats on the back and kudos anymore. [You can never say this enough!]<\/em> (8:49)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Diana\u2019s Prescription For Mental Health: \u201cBlock Out That Angst.\u201d<\/h5>\n

You know, if there\u2019s an existential angst that we feel \u2014 especially as we get older \u2014 that the clock is ticking, and it ticks faster as you get older. If there\u2019s an angst that it\u2019s also short, and now I regret the way I spent, you know, some of childhood and the 20s and the 30s in the 40s.<\/p>\n

Well, there\u2019s only one remedy, the way I can figure it anymore, is to not dwell on any of that. Learn from it, and move onward, and just take this day, that\u2019s right in front of you. That\u2019s all you have. Yeah, you don\u2019t have yesterday anymore. And you don\u2019t have tomorrow yet, you have this day. And that\u2019s the way to, you know, block out that angst and get to the end with no regrets. (9:40)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can\u2019t \u201clearn from it\u201d if you block it out, so it\u2019s one or the other. In different tales, Nyad has signaled that she favors the Block It Out school. In her fictitious story of a childhood sexual abuse survivor<\/a>, the survivor\u2019s mother implores her: \u201cYou must take these memories and bury them deep in a corner of your soul\u201d (Find a Way<\/em>, p. 135). Buried and unacknowledged pain, however, will find a way to call attention to itself.<\/p>\n

The Noble Quest . . . Again<\/h5>\n

It\u2019s a noble quest. It\u2019s got tremendous imagination to it. It\u2019s kind of like the Mount Everest of the ocean. There\u2019s nothing more difficult than this passage. (13:50)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nyad likes to assert her and her venture\u2019s nobility:<\/p>\n

Believe me, I sleep very easily, no doubts about what I\u2019ve done or the fair and noble way I\u2019ve gone about my life and my swimming career. (letter to Brent Rutemiller<\/a>, 31 Jan 2019, p. 2)<\/p>\n

This swim was a noble quest and a matter of indisputable ethics to each one of us. We sleep easily, consciences clear that I swam across fair and square, shore to shore. (Find a Way, p. 278)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nyad\u2019s use of the word \u201cnoble\u201d or its derivatives, it turns out, is one of her tells. When she says something is \u201cnoble,\u201d we can assume it\u2019s the opposite. For instance, she tells Poett that her swim is noble and has \u201ctremendous imagination.\u201d For Nyad, though, \u201ctremendous imagination\u201d means \u201ctremendous opportunity for money and fame\u201d (see below). So, not exactly noble.<\/p>\n

And her statement that \u201cthere\u2019s nothing more difficult than this passage\u201d isn\u2019t exactly noble, either. Of course there are more difficult swims. For Diana, though, no endeavor is worthwhile unless it\u2019s first or best. Her solution when it\u2019s not? Just say it is, block out the fact that she has just lied, and move on.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the devil:<\/p>\n

What, no hugs?<\/h5>\n

Last year I went and got the world\u2019s leading expert on box jellyfish. It\u2019s all she\u2019s done. She\u2019s kind of a Jane Goodall of box jellyfish \u2014 Angel Yanagihara from the University of Hawaii. (15:14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Angel Yanagihara is not<\/em> the world\u2019s leading expert<\/a> on box jellyfish.\u00a0And has she ever hugged a jellyfish? I don\u2019t think so, at least not on purpose.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jane Goodall and friend, via Zoomer<\/a>. Photo: Michel Gunther\/Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Not My Film, Nope, Nope, Nope<\/h5>\n

The documentary film that\u2019s been made on this, it\u2019s called The Other Shore, which will, you know, it\u2019ll broadcast in the fall sometime. And it\u2019s a very powerful, emotional film. It\u2019s not my film, I had nothing to do with it. But it\u2019s um, it\u2019s out there, and I\u2019m, I\u2019m, I\u2019m moved by it. (19:10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Technically, she\u2019s right that it wasn\u2019t her film. It was Tim Wheeler\u2019s, her nephew, a fact she often omits. However, at her press conference the day after the swim, she acknowledged Wheeler<\/a>: \u201cTim also was here yesterday shooting so that he can massage that ending that I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that she and Steven Munatones so accurately predicted.<\/p>\n