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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4 comments:
Tony,
Thanks for writing about this.
I have to take issue, though, with one of your statements, at least as it relates to Nyad:
"When one becomes a public figure, (especially politicians) they mostly sell out and become actors."
I maintain that Nyad has been acting all along. She began her acting career in earnest, however, sometime around 1974 or 1975. She had been moderately successful on the pro swimming circuit up until 1973. That summer, though, two women joined the tour—Corrie Dixon and Sandra Bucha—both of whom beat Nyad every time they raced. The following season was even worse: a number of other women beat Nyad; and, in one race, Bucha thumped Nyad by over three hours.
However, due to the idiosyncrasies of the pro swimming federation's scoring system, Nyad was named 1974's women's World Champion. She won the crown purely on points, never having come close to beating Bucha.
At that point, something seemed to change for Nyad. She knew that she wasn't the best marathon swimmer in the world, but she also knew that she wanted the public to think that she was. Perhaps the unearned title made her realize that being the best didn't matter as long as she shouted loud enough, "I AM THE GREATEST."
So around that time, Nyad began claiming to be the greatest marathon swimmer on the planet. Also around that time, Nyad started changing her story about why she didn't reach the Olympics. She went from "I just wasn't good enough" to "I was a shoo-in but got terribly ill" (see "Diana's Kaleidoscopic Convalescence, take 2").
Nyad left the pro tour at the end of the '75 season, became the 7th or 1st woman to swim around Manhattan, and the rest is marathon swimming history, went on the Tonight Show, and the rest is marathon swimming history.
...
Note: Most of Nyad's videos have disappeared, e.g.
One of your posts
Another of your posts
Nyad's YouTube channel
Nyad probably wanted to avoid another 2012-like embarrassment—you know, that video of her holding onto the boat, clear disqualification in any marathon swim, rules or no.
She probably wishes that "Diana: A Documentary" would disappear too:
Diana Doc
At four minutes in, Nyad looks directly at the interviewer and declares, "[I was] the first woman to swim around Manhattan." "Diana: A Doc..." came out about a year after CNN caught Nyad in that very lie, i.e. attempting to erase from history the six pioneering women who preceded her around the island—see "History Rewritten….to my GREAT Surprise!".
(By the way, the first woman around Manhattan—Ida Elionsky—was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame just this year: Ida Elionsky at Openwaterpedia.)
You can still find a few videos if you dig. One of them is, to me, absolute proof that she did not swim from Cuba to Florida under her own power. It's this one, in which she gives a speech after an ostensible fifty hours or so of swimming:
Thank You Speech
Nope, not possible, not even for the great Diana Nyad.
Aquatically yours,
-Daniel
P.S. For way too much information about Nyad's races, etc., during the 1970s, see this draft spreadsheet. Note that there are tabs for the years at the bottom.
Nice to hear from you, Daniel. I made sure all your links work and your voice is heard. :-)
Perhaps I should have worded the third sentence of this post like this: "When a person decides they want to become a public figure, (especially politicians) they mostly sell out and become actors."
Tony
Good to hear from you, too.
I'm afraid that Ms. Nyad has, from a young age, both coveted the spotlight and had a gift for staying in it. George Solomon was the Washington Post's Sports editor for 28 years. As a journeyman at the Ft. Lauderdale News in 1967, he went all goo-goo eyed over the teenaged Nyad: "Diana Nyad: Pool-Shaped Heart."
I suspect that much of Nyad's need for attention—and many of her strategies for getting it—came from her step-father and namesake, Aris Nyad:
"Hollywood Trip Ends in Arrest"
Aris Nyad Timeline
Simply wish to say the frankness in your article is surprising.Thanks for sharing.
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