{"id":323,"date":"2018-04-07T17:42:36","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T17:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/2018\/04\/07\/the-captain-and-diana\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:46:06","slug":"the-captain-and-diana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyadfactcheck.com\/annex\/the-captain-and-diana\/","title":{"rendered":"The Captain and Diana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 22 Feb 2021: Added that Webb attempted to cross the Niagara River below the falls, not above them (thanks to information provided by a well-informed reader).<\/em><\/p>\n


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

In the summer of 1976,\u00a0 Diana Nyad flies to England\u2026<\/p>\n

happily accompanied by my two closest friends . . . and by an American film crew of seven. We were off to make, assist, and record history. I was attempting to become the first woman to complete the double crossing of the English Channel. (Other Shores<\/a>, 1978, p. 121)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the flight, Nyad reads the Channel Swimming Association (CSA) handbook. “Who knows the story of Captain Matthew Webb . . . ?” she paraphrases:<\/p>\n

Webb was the first to swim across. . . . Some weeks later Webb tried to cross the Niagara River four hundred meters above the falls; he is buried at the bottom. (p. 122<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The way Nyad describes it, Webb barely had time to dry off before steaming across the Atlantic. Once in the U.S., he\u2019d have to race for Niagara and immediately jump back in the water.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The timing sounded suspicious. A few moments with Google revealed the truth<\/a>: Webb attempted to cross the Niagara River not weeks but years after his EC attempt. And not above the falls (with the implication that he went over them) but below. The current carried his body downstream and he is buried in a cemetery near where he washed ashore.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

So was Nyad again making stuff up, or just repeating erroneous information in the handbook?<\/p>\n

Michael Read<\/a>, a fellow who has crossed the English Channel a few times himself, kindly sent copies of the relevant pages<\/a> from the handbook\u2019s Centennial Edition, the current volume as of Nyad\u2019s trip:<\/p>\n

Captain Webb lost his life in an attempt to swim across the rapids and whirlpools at Niagara in July 1883.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, eight years after he conquered the English Channel.<\/p>\n

He was buried at Lewiston, seven miles below the mighty falls, where his body was found.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\u00b0))\u0302)\u0316)><\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0><((\u0317(\u0302(\u00b0><\/p>\n

I can understand the big lies: She resents not being first around Manhattan, so she makes herself first. Not qualifying for the Olympic Trials is a painful loss, so she writes herself into the race. She resents all the swimmers who conquered and continue to conquer the English Channel, so she declares the swim unworthy of her and pretends that she never made the attempts.<\/p>\n

But why the tiny, insignificant lies? And why lie about Captain Webb? Nyad seems to gain nothing. You could dismiss it as exaggeration, a way to amp up the story, make it just a little bit juicier. But there\u2019s a pattern: most of Nyad\u2019s lies belittle or ignore the accomplishments of others while promoting and maximizing her own.<\/p>\n

For Nyad, marathon swimming is a zero-sum game. Others\u2019 successes somehow diminish her. If others succeed where she cannot, she must find a way to disparage them and their achievements while making herself feel more special.<\/p>\n

Nyad went to England in 1976 not just to cross the English Channel but to become the first woman to complete a double. Too many others had already completed one-way crossings; a single wasn\u2019t worth her time.<\/p>\n

That summer, Nyad made three attempts and couldn\u2019t get across once. So she had to denigrate everyone who already had made the crossing and everyone who eventually would.<\/p>\n

She started with crosser #1. Nyad worked to make Captain Webb look as ridiculous as possible. She has him race from swimming the English Channel to attempting a fatal stunt at Niagara Falls, thereby contorting a hero into an attention-starved loon. (A bit of projection?) Then she twists a proper burial into an eternity at the bottom of the Niagara River.<\/p>\n

Finally, she dismisses the accomplishments of all English Channel swimmers in perpetuity:<\/p>\n

I knew the difficulty of conquering the [English] Channel to be highly overrated, despite its public acclaim. (Other Shores, p. 123)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Nyad gave different excuses for each one of her failures:<\/p>\n