I like Diana Nyad, (she looks good in that Rolex too) I think she produces great sports op-eds. However, she is not immune to scrutiny, and Irv Muchnik and fellow SCAQ swimmer, Daniel Slosberg, have done just that. They scrutinized her accomplishments. Therein, they outline embellishments and de facto lies she has made as a public figure.
When one becomes a public figure, (especially politicians) they mostly sell out and become actors. What do actors do? They recite imaginary lines to tell a story. Examples include Hillary Clinton tall tale of dodging bullets in Bosnia, Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News broadcast, stating he had "…The great honor of flying into Baghdad with SEAL Team 6." Don't get me started on Donald Trump.
Diana Nyad has now faced that same fact-checking shame.
From Irv Muchnick on Concussion Inc:
Nyad’s story is distinct from others’ because her ethos of hype seems fundamental to every angle of her public figure. At his website Diana Nyad Fact Check, Slosberg takes on various keystones of her self-curated biography: not just the state championship meet discrepancy of the Jack Nelson abuse anecdote, but also things like Nyad’s shifting explanations of the illness that is said to have cost her a shot at making an Olympic team. Perhaps most sensationally yet persuasively, Slosberg argues technical irregularities in her epic and celebrated Havana-to-Key West swim.
Slosberg says, “Nyad is not so much a cautionary tale as she is a compulsive liar/con artist/sociopath for whom alleging sexual abuse is just one more way to get attention.” One of the motivations for his project is that he believes the Nyad industry deflects credit and honor from other marathon swimmers he knows, such as Penny Dean and Cindy Cleveland, who are far more accomplished than Nyad and far more generous to other athletes, but suffer from self-effacement. Sarah Thomas swam a legitimate 67-hour current-neutral 104 miles in 2017. In her motivational speaking, Nyad denigrates the great Dutch swimmer Judith de Nijs, a far more accomplished athlete. Australian Chloë McCardel crossed the English Channel 29 times; Britain’s Alison Street, 43 times. By falsely claiming to be the first swimmer to complete the loop around Manhattan Island, Nyad attempts to erase from history the six women who preceded her.
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