{"id":3102,"date":"2024-01-05T12:35:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T12:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/?p=3102"},"modified":"2025-09-06T22:12:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:12:55","slug":"the-nyad-apologists-who-say-she-hasnt-lied-for-years-need-to-explain-what-happened-last-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/the-nyad-apologists-who-say-she-hasnt-lied-for-years-need-to-explain-what-happened-last-month\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nyad Apologists Who Say She Hasn’t Lied For Years Need To Explain What Happened Last Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ancient History<\/h2>\n

Nyad and her PR surrogates want us to think she hasn’t lied for decades:<\/p>\n

“It makes me really sad that we are scrutinizing things that happened 30 years ago.”<\/strong>
\n\u2014 Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, NYAD co-director, Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, 30 Aug 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

“‘She said some untrue things 40 years ago.'”<\/strong>
\n\u2014 Evan Morrison, Marathon Swimmers Federation co-founder, via Facebook (archived)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“Some of those statements are 45 years old \u2014 there wasn’t even an internet then. . . . To me, it’s ancient history.”<\/strong>
\n\u2014 Diana Nyad, Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, 30 Aug 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

Make that 48; here’s what Diana said almost half a century ago:<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s true I used to lie. . . . Only to impress myself. I would tell a cab driver a lie \u2014 anybody. I don\u2019t have to do that anymore.”<\/strong>
\n\u2014 Diana Nyad, Village Voice<\/a><\/em>, 1976<\/span><\/p>\n

But she does. Below are some of the lies she told last month.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fake That Money Maker<\/h2>\n

In a December 22 interview<\/a> with entrepreneur Nely Gal\u00e1n, Diana demonstrated how lies can imitate art.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Money Maker interview was Nyad’s second with the credulous Gal\u00e1n. See \u201cMeet Diana Nyad: Epic Adventurer Who Refuses To Accept Defeat.\u201d<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She told Gal\u00e1n:<\/p>\n

I had all those years, 30 years, from age 30 to 60, traipsing around the world to the Tour de France, to the US National Tennis Championships, the great sporting events of the world, following the greatest athletes in the world. (21:26)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the Nyad biopic, Diana (Annette Bening) brags to a potential date that<\/p>\n

30 years with ABC Sports has taken me all over the world. (~6:25)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, Nyad lasted less than 10 years at ABC. She started at the network in 1980. But by 1987 \u2014 after she had “worked out a free-lance arrangement with ABC,”<\/a> which is presumably Nyad-speak for “they let me go” or “my assignments dried up to almost nothing” \u2014 she’d begun plying her trade elsewhere. Some examples:<\/p>\n