Diana Nyad is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer who garnered widespread recognition in 1975 for setting a record while swimming around Manhattan. She further made headlines in 1979 by completing a swim from North Bimini, The Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida.
Bio/Wiki
Age- 74 years
Height- 5 feet 6 inches
Weight- 58 kg
Born- 22 August 1949
Birth place- New York, New York, United States
Spouse-Bart Springtime
Profession-American author and journalist
Nationality- American
Family
Nyad was born in New York City on August 22, 1949, to Lucy Winslow Curtis (1925–2007) and stockbroker William L. Sneed Jr. Lucy Sneed, Nyad’s mother, was a great-granddaughter of Charlotte N. Winslow, the inventor of Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, a popular morphine-based medicine for teething children manufactured from 1849 until the 1930s. The Sneeds divorced in 1952. Lucy later married Aristotle Z. Nyad, a Greek-Egyptian land developer, who subsequently adopted Diana.
Education
She started her swimming journey in seventh grade and attended the private Pine Crest School in the mid-1960s. After graduating from Pine Crest School in 1967, she enrolled at Emory University but was later expelled for an incident involving her jumping out of a fourth-floor dormitory window wearing a parachute.
Relationship
Diana Nyad shares a deep and enduring friendship with her training partner, Bonnie Stoll, whom she has considered her best friend for three decades. Their relationship is strictly platonic. Nyad identifies as a lesbian and holds atheistic beliefs.Nyad values her privacy and has chosen not to publicly disclose any romantic involvements.
Career
Diana Nyad is the author of four books: “Other Shores” (Random House: September 1978), detailing her life and distance swimming; “Basic Training for Women” (Harmony Books: 1981); “Boss of Me: The Keyshawn Johnson Story” (1999) about an NFL wide receiver; and “Find a Way” (Knopf Publishing Group: 2015). She previously hosted the public radio program “The Savvy Traveler.” Additionally, she was the subject of a short documentary titled “Diana” by the digital channel WIGS in 2012. An independently produced documentary film, “The Other Shore,” was released in early 2013, a few months before Nyad’s first successful swim from Cuba to Florida.
In June 1974, Nyad set a women’s record of 8 hours, 11 minutes in the 22-mile (35 km) Gulf of Naples race.
In 1975, at the age of 26, she swam 28 miles (45 km) around Manhattan (New York City) in just under 8 hours (7 hours 57 minutes).
On her 30th birthday (August 21–22, 1979), Nyad set a world record for distance swimming over open water, covering 102 miles (164 km) from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida, without a protective shark cage.
At the age of 60, on September 2, 2013, she successfully completed a 110-mile (180 km) swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida, taking about 53 hours. Please note that this swim has not been officially ratified by any marathon swimming organization as of 2023.
On March 4, 2014, Nyad was revealed as one of the contestants for the 18th season of Dancing with the Stars. Despite her participation, she finished in the final position. Her dance partner for the show was professional dancer Henry Byalikov. Additionally, Nyad made an appearance in the music video for Macy Gray’s song “Bang, Bang” in 2014.
Controversy
The formal validation of Nyad’s Cuba to Florida swim remains elusive due to the absence of independent observers and incomplete records. The Guinness Book of World Records rescinded Nyad’s achievement, prompting her to acknowledge her mistake, stating, “Maybe I had too much hubris, like, ‘I don’t need to prove this to anybody.’ That’s my bad”.
In September 2023, the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) reexamined her 2013 swim and once more refrained from certifying it. The decision followed increased scrutiny due to a film adaptation of Nyad’s memoir. Retired marathon swimmer Daniel Slosberg accused Nyad of embellishing her accomplishments, to which she admitted in 2023, “Am I embarrassed to have inflated my own record when my record is pretty good on its own? Yes, it makes me cringe”.
Achievements/ Awards
- In 1986, Nyad was inducted into the United States National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
- She is an International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree (1978) and received the ISHOF Al Schoenfield Media Award in 2002.
- Nyad is a Hall of Famer at her college, Lake Forest College in Illinois, and at her high school, Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale.
- In 2014, Nyad received the first ESPN Sports Science Newton Award for Outstanding New Limit.
- She was honored with the L.A. Sports Council’s Athlete of the Year award in 2014.
- Nyad was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.
- She received the Jack LaLanne Award in 2014.
- Nyad was presented with the “Orden al Mérito Deportivo” [Order of Sporting Merit] Award from Cuba in 2014.
- A bronze plaque honoring Nyad was unveiled on a concrete wall bordering Smathers Beach, where she concluded her successful Cuba to Florida swim.
- She was named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year in 2014.
- In 2015, Nyad was featured in Marie Claire magazine’s “The 8 Greatest Moments for Women in Sports.”
- Chapter 30 of the book “The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQ Activism,” written by Rita Mae Brown, was dedicated to Nyad.
Net Worth 2023
As of 2023, the estimated net worth of American author Diana Nyad is $5 million.
Diana Nyad’s Unwavering Journey: NYAD’ True Story
Ten years after becoming the first person to swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, without a shark cage, Diana Nyad’s remarkable journey has been depicted in a highly anticipated and controversial biopic released on Netflix last Friday.
Adapted from Nyad’s memoir “Find a Way” by Julia Cox and directed by the husband-and-wife team Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the crowd-pleasing sports film “Nyad” portrays the later-in-life victory of the charismatic yet polarizing long-distance swimmer.
Having retired from marathon swimming three decades ago and pursued a career in sports journalism, Nyad became fixated on the challenge that had eluded her in 1978 when she was 28 years old. In 2013, at the age of 64, Nyad accomplished the 53-hour, 110-mile journey from Cuba to Florida on her fifth attempt, solidifying her status as one of the most accomplished swimmers in her discipline.
“The Cuba to Florida swim was a dream that never left me and was always in the back of my mind,” Nyad shared in an interview provided by Netflix. (She was not available for further interviews due to Hollywood’s SAG-AFTRA strike.) “There was something powerful about connecting these two countries. When I didn’t make it at 28, I spent a year waiting for visas and the right weather to try again. I became so frustrated that I decided to start my broadcasting career, leaving the Cuba swim behind. I was living my life fully, but I always kept the Cuba swim in a corner of my imagination. That epic adventure was always calling me, and I didn’t want to leave it as regret.”
