Diana Nyad often claims that she was the greatest long-distance swimmer of the 1970s. She says this with such confidence and bravado that most people believe it. But Nyad was never close.

The 1970s abounded with great marathon swimmers. Diana Nyad, however, was not one of them. Here are twelve who were. I’ll explain why below.

Sandra Bucha (Stanford Daily)	Cindy Cleveland (Jay Slosberg)	Lynne Cox (UCSB Daily Nexus)
Penny Dean (Claremont Courier)	Jon Erikson (legacy.com)	Horacio Iglesias (Wikimedia Commons)
John Kinsella (Stanford Daily)	Kevin Murphy (Courage To Succeed)	Cindy Nicholas (Dick Darrell)
Claudio Plit (via ISHOF)	Michael Read (Channel Swimming Dover)	Des Renford (Daily Telegraph)

Well before bell-bottoms and the Bee Gees had gone out of style, Diana Nyad was calling herself the best marathon swimmer of the 1970s. A false claim, but tough to measure. Later, her best-of-the-decade assertions—and those of her publicists—evolved into some version of:

In the 1970s, she became known as the world’s greatest long distance swimmer. (diananyad.com)

Then, at a presentation in October 2019, she handed out a yardstick:

I became, in the 1970s, the best ocean swimmer in the world. I held all the major records on planet Earth, out in the open sea. (Wilshire Ebell—audio clip)

With that, her claim became measurable.

If we define a major ocean swim of the 1970s as, say, a solo event of over ten miles with at least ten successes through 1979, we get the following list:

Major Ocean Swims	Successes through 1979	Successes during the 1970s
English Channel	400	198
Catalina Channel	55	27
Cook Strait (New Zealand)	11	9
Bristol Channel (Great Britain)	11	5
Strait of Gibraltar (Spain–Morocco)	32	4

 

A major record “out in the open sea,” then, would be a record in any of those swims.

But Nyad never completed any of those swims, much less set records for them. Quite a leap between that and “I held all the major records on planet Earth.”

During Nyad’s entire career, she only set marks in three swims that anyone might consider major: In 1974, she swam Lake Ontario north to south, becoming the first person to do so; that same year, she also set a record in the Capri-Napoli race; the following year, she circled Manhattan in record time. Only Capri-Napoli, however, was “out in the open sea.”

In 1979, she completed a current-aided, warm-water crossing from Bimini to Florida. Again, though, not a major swim. So by her own measure, Nyad never came close to being the best long-distance swimmer in the world.

Using Nyad’s criteria, we get eight nominees for The Greatest Marathon Swimmer of the 1970s. In alphabetical order, they are:

 

Cindy Cleveland

1976	Catalina single
1977	Catalina double
(1978	Anacapa Island two-way—first Anacapa crossing ever and first double)
1979	first Catalina Island circumnavigation

 

Lynne Cox

1971	Catalina Channel at age 14
1972	English Channel record
1973	another English Channel record
1974	Catalina Channel record
1975	first woman to swim Cook Strait
	. . . and that’s just the first half of the first decade of Lynne Cox’s astounding career. For more, see this timeline of her swims.

Penny Dean

1976	Catalina Channel record that still stands
1977	Catalina Channel two-way record that still stands
1978	English Channel in 7:40, the first sub-eight-hour EC crossing in history
	Dean’s time was more than an hour faster than anyone had swum before. She held the overall record for sixteen years and the women’s record for twenty-eight. Only one person owned an English Channel solo record longer: Matthew Webb, EC swimmer #1.
1979	Women’s WPMSF champion. The 2nd place swimmer trailed Dean by more than 1000 points.
	Dean went on to coach many other marathoners, including Chad Hundeby, the swimmer who finally broke her overall record.

 

Jon Erikson

1975	English Channel two-way
1979, 4 Aug	English Channel single
1979, 19 Aug	English Channel two-way
	In 1981, Erikson became the first swimmer to complete an English Channel three-way.

 

Kevin Murphy

1970	third person to complete English Channel double
1970	North Channel (Ireland to Scotland, 22 miles)
1971	first person to swim around the Isle of Wight (56 miles/35 hrs. 10min)
1971	North Channel
1975	pulled from the water on 3rd leg of EC triple crossing attempt after having swum 52 hours
1976	English Channel twice (and Loch Ness)
	. . . and too many more to include here. Murphy crossed the Channel nine times in the seventies—two doubles and five singles—on his way to 34 total.

 

Cindy Nicholas

(1974    Lake Ontario at age 16)
1975	English Channel
1976	English Channel twice
1977	first woman to complete an English Channel double. Her 19:55 smashed the previous overall record, Jon Erikson’s 29:50, by almost 10 hours.
1978	English Channel
1978	Queen of the Channel (1978-1992)
1979	English Channel double, breaking her own record
1979	English Channel twice

 

 

Michael Read

1970-1979	16 English Channel crossings
1973	Around Isle of Wight
1975, 1976	The Wash
1979-1980	King of the Channel (and 1980-2000, 2004-2006)

 

 

Des Renford

1970-1979	16 English Channel crossings
1975-1979	King of the Channel (and for a time in 1980)

In remaining faithful to Nyad’s constraints, the above list omits several other great marathoners of the 1970s, in particular:

1. Sandra Bucha and John Kinsella, both of whom dominated the pro race circuit. But those races occurred mainly in lakes, not “out in the open sea.” Kinsella swam the English Channel in 1979.
2. Horacio Iglesias and Claudio Plit also excelled on the pro circuit. Like Kinsella, Plitt crossed the English Channel in 1979.

 

In professional races, Nyad never finished close to Bucha, Kinsella, Iglesias, or Plit.

So who was the best swimmer of the 1970s? Heck if I know. But one thing’s for sure: It wasn’t Diana Nyad.

On the other hand, no marathon swimmer in history has combined her knack for PR with her lust for attention and ease with deceit. And that’s why Diana Nyad became known as The Greatest.

 

 

The Greatest: In order of appearance—Jennie McNulty (in Walking Funny With…Diana Nyad); unknown (in 2015 Lake Forest College Commencement Speech - Diana Nyad; Claudia Bestor (in Hammer Conversations: Diana Nyad and Catherine Opie); Diana Nyad (89th National FFA Convention & Expo); Catherine Opie (in Hammer Conversations . . . ).

Music: Kevin MacLeod, “Deuces.”

 

 

Further Reading

 

Want a second opinion?

How about we consult James “Doc” Counsilman, the Hall of Fame swim coach who led Indiana University to six NCAA championships during his 33-year tenure. Counsilman coached over 60 Olympians. In 1979, at age 58, he swam the English Channel:

 

By taking on the Channel, Counsilman also hoped to help plot a truer course for a sport that he feels is being exploited by “phony-baloney promoters.” He cites the example of Diana Nyad, “a very mediocre swimmer with a very good publicist. Most of her swims have been failures. . . . Still, when she gets into the tide off the Bahamas and rides it to Florida, a swim that truly great marathoners like John Kinsella could do with one arm tied behind their backs, she gets all the attention.” (Sports Illustrated, 24 Sep 1979)

	Image from “Go For the Gold, Doc.” Original caption reads: “Hetzel comforted Counsilman, who said, ‘It only hurt once—from the beginning to the end.’” (Photo: Terence Spencer.)

A third and fourth?

Tom Hetzel swam the English Channel eight times:

 

“She has a tremendous reputation for not finishing races,” complains Tom Hetzel, seven-time conqueror of the English Channel. “She has gotten more publicity for doing less than anyone I know.” (People Magazine, 16 Aug 1976, p. 72. See also pages 70 and 71.)

 

John Kinsella, Olympic medalist, world record holder, and 5-time World Professional Marathon Swimming champion:

 

Diana is such a joke to anybody who knows anything about marathons. (Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug 1978)

 

Blog posts

• “Nyad at the Ebell, part 1: The Best on Planet Earth.”
• “Questioning Diana’s Decade of Dominance.”
• “Diana Nyad Spills at Bold Missy Brewery.”

 

Data

• Individual swims
  • Cook Strait record holders
  • English Channel record holders
  • Strait of Gibraltar récords sin neopreno

 

• Multiple swims
  • Best of the Seventies spreadsheet: compilation of the accomplishments of 27 of the top long-distance swimmers of the 1970s.
  • Results and documentation of World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation (WPMSF) races during the years Nyad competed on the circuit (1970-1975).