Diana Nyad Fact Check site

danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

I’ve just opened up the Diana Nyad Fact Check website: http://www.nyadfactcheck.com.

It's intended to correct the public record about Diana Nyad and to find some people to write about or otherwise broadcast that record. My dream is that the site's information will eventually move someone to come forward and tell us what really happened in the Florida Straits in the summer of 2013.

If you have a chance to visit the site, I’d very much appreciate any feedback--whether it be errors, omissions, grammar, design, etc. I welcome any input. And please forward the link to anyone who might be interested, anyone who might have something to add, and especially to anyone who might want to write about Nyad and help get the word out.

I didn't want to do this, but Diana wouldn't go away. If she had just done whatever she did on the Cuba-to-Florida thing, then drifted off, I could have left it alone. But the credulity of the public encouraged her, and she continued with her stunts and her new/old Manhattan claims.

Still, I could have sat back and watched. But then I saw this...

...and it got personal--Nyad next to Vin Scully, one of my childhood (and adulthood) heroes. By sharing a podium with Scully and the others, Nyad dishonors every one of them. By claiming to be the first woman to swim around Manhattan, she dishonors the six who preceded her. By claiming to have swum in the Olympic trials, she dishonors all of those who actually did. By saying that she completed a Cuba-to-Florida swim that was honorable and squeaky clean, she dishonors all of those who have made swims so honorable and squeaky clean that it went without saying.

Again, if you have any questions, concerns, criticisms, suggestions, etc., please let me know about them.

Aquatically yours,

-Daniel Slosberg
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Tagged:
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Comments

  • pavlicovpavlicov NYC USASenior Member

    Dan,

    This is amazing! I read it with one breath! That is exactly what I have asked for while ago - a site/page where a lay person can go and understand what really she claims and what is the truth.

    I don't have any recommendations or criticism, I just love it. Plus, I would love to support the site and your time, you should have a donation button on there or let us know how we can support you.

    Here is to the best news in 2017!

    Martina

    JaimiesuziedodsDanSimonelli
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Martina,

    Thank you so much--you made my day.

    And thanks for the offer of support. I think that the best support you (or anyone) could give the site is to help get the info out. I don't know much about social media, so maybe you know of ways there that I've neglected. I posted a link on Facebook so am hoping it gets passed around there.

    Please let me know if you have any other ideas.

    -Daniel

    Jaimie
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Great idea. I'll add it as soon as I can--it may be a day or two.

    suziedods
  • JaimieJaimie NYCMem​ber

    This is great - thanks so much @danslos and great idea @Niek about Walter.

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    This is great! I already sent it to someone who thinks DN is great. It's nice to just send a link and let them read the facts, rather than trying to list them all out on my own.

    pavlicovsuziedodsrlmAnthonyMcCarleyIronMike
  • In 1968 I swam in a 100 freestyle final which included one of the UK Mexico Olympians (just after his return from Mexico where he came 4th). He won the race against me. Eventhough I did a PB and came last..................But compared to DN, at least I actually raced an Olympian.

    danslosrosemarymintAnthonyMcCarleyDanSimonellisuziedods
  • OOOH !!OOOH!! I once swam next to Matt Biondi!! and Tom Jaeger. I can't tell you anymore because I was just swooning too much. This is branching off into another thread.. but I CLEARLY remember Matt Biondi as being lovely.( as a person, as a person)

    DanSimonelliKatieBun
  • Way to go, I read that post and connected with every thought. To be able to send a simple link with all the info for anyone to read is amazing. I am saving this link to my favorites so I have it at hand! Thank you for organizing this into an easy to use and forward information that we can all use to help with the DN problem.

    DanSimonellicurlyKatieBun
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Thanks Camille.

    I just added a bit to the Poenisch section, with a link to excerpts from David Heeren's book The Sporting Stings. E.g.

    The media, virtually ignoring Poenisch, were eagerly awaiting the prodigiously publicized attempt of Nyad to make the same swim. She had announced that the Cuba swim was her idea and the media bought it, even though she had not mentioned it when I interviewed her in 1971, the same year I first wrote about Poenisch's Cuba-to-U.S.A aspirations.

    gregocevmorlmDanSimonelliKatieBunBridget
  • I work for a biggish US-HQed company, who are having their global sales meeting this week. Apparently they had DN come speak. I got an excited E-mail from a sales colleague, who knows I have done some OW swims, saying that they wished I were there to hear her.

    My heart sank somewhat. While my natural urge is to tell her what I really think about the woman, I really don't want to rain on their parade, as I am sure DN put up a good show, and I am sure sent many of them away feeling inspired about 'sticking with it' etc etc.

    These are interesting post-truth times in which we live.......

    IronMikedanslosKatieBun
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member
    edited January 2017

    @Jbetley

    JB,

    Though I know I'll see you here next week and could readily say this to you then, I wanted to share with everyone here:

    I used to think and feel similarly, (live and let live), on this issue and scenario which comes to me more often then I'd like.

    Then, a couple years ago I had conversation with a real, prominent and globally respected swimmer who answered my similar thought with this succinct and profound answer,
    "But, Dan, the person's story is based on lies."

    That simple response to my thinking completely shifted my attitude about dealing with this situation.

    (Another good quote from this person,
    "she's the most successful unsuccessful swimmer I know." 8-| )

    So, I started from that day forward to make my opinion (and subsequent fact based knowledge about her and general issue) known to anyone promoting or otherwise excited about being inspired by a narcissistic, story-telling myth and charlatan who attacks and slanders people and will ruin lives to get what she wants!

    No more complacent silence.
    No tacit acceptance.

    "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic".

    • JFK
    danslostimsrootrlmgregocslknightJbetleyIronMikeAnthonyMcCarleyLeonard_JansenMoCocurlysuziedodsKatieBunrosemarymint
  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited January 2017

    @DanSimonelli said

    No more complacent silence. No tacit acceptance.

    Which is how I feel about swim frauds by now, having been exposed to, in contact with, asked about, lied to about or have an opinion on too many of them over the recent years.

    And why I think it's also important to speak out before the false claim is made and we get categorised (as we will regardless) as simply online haters.

    AnthonyMcCarleydanslossuziedodsLeonard_JansenevmocurlyDanSimonelliKatieBun

    loneswimmer.com

  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member

    I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that she is, in effect, also committing fraud by accepting money to speak, etc on the basis of accomplishments that either aren't true or are so embellished that they bear no relation to reality.
    Also, from mathematical Game Theory, if we assume that the total amount of money available for long distance swimmers to earn by appearances and the like is (very) finite and fixed (i.e. a "zero sum game"), then she is also committing fraud by taking money away from those with legitimate accomplishments as it is not available for them to earn.
    Finally, her fraudulent claims can have the effect of suppressing the market. By getting people to believe that she did the Cuba-FL swim in a legitimate fashion, other's accomplishments, that are truly legit but not of the Cuba-Fl magnitude, do not receive due consideration. e.g. "Hey Sally, who do we want to speak at the annual meeting this year?" "Well, Bob, I heard about this woman that swam a world record continuous 80-ish miles. How about her?" "No, that can't be the world record - DN swam over 100 miles when she did Cuba-FL."

    -LBJ

    P.S. This doesn't even mention the potential backlash against the sport if people ever wake up and discover that they paid good money based on something false/exaggerated. This is the saying that "You lie down with dogs, you get fleas", made real: "D@mned distance swimmers, they're probably all like that women who was defrauding everyone. I'll believe that sport is honest when H@ll freezes over."

    evmocurlysuziedodsTheodanslosAnthonyMcCarleyDanSimonellikejoyceKatieBungregocIronMikerosemarymintrlmssthomas

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • AnthonyMcCarleyAnthonyMcCarley Berwyn, PACharter Member
    edited January 2017

    @Leonard_Jansen
    Another incredibly insightful post from you. I miss your posts when you aren’t active.

    In the last couple of months, I have done presentations in Chicago, Munich and Boca Rotan. The good news is that I don’t think anyone in Munich knew who she was. But in both Chicago and Boca Rotan I was asked about her.

    When asked about "the woman who swam from Cuba", I restate the question by saying “the woman who claims to have swam from Cuba” with an emphasis on the word "claims". Most people immediately understand. I believe that by the end of my presentations I have established enough credibility that people accept my point of view.

    I agree with you that the magnitude of her claims damages us all in ways that are impossible to know or measure.

    DanSimonelliKatieBungregocSoloIronMikerosemarymintrlmssthomas
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member

    To @loneswimmer 's point:

    “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
    ~ Mark Twain

    Gotta get our fins on!!

    JustSwimKatieBungregocloneswimmerrlmssthomas
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    There's a new article on the LA Times website: "Why open water swimmer Diana Nyad wants you to start walking." I was puzzling over how to comment and link to the fact check page, but someone beat me to it. :\">

    DanSimonelliAnthonyMcCarleycurlyKatieBunsuziedods
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    Totally great! I went to the site and the comment section and clicked on the link to the fact check site. I don't know a heck of a lot about the internet, but I think if you click on links from one site to another it starts to gain in importance. Chime in if you know more than I do about this stuff. Or go see the article and click the link to the fact check!

  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Unfortunately, I learned this morning that whoever posted that comment, true as it is, had created a fraudulent account and posted under Lynne's name. Disappointing that anyone would do that. Lynne has contacted the Times and asked them to take it down.

    suziedods
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Update: comment appears to have been removed.

  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    Oh great. Now we have frauds pointing out frauds... 8-|

  • BridgetBridget New York StateMember

    So glad to have learned of Walter Poenisch. Thank you for sharing links!!! What a story. I just read Nyad's Find a Way, and have certainly been exposed to her story for years, but somehow hadn't gotten the scoop on the questions of her swim. Sad, since she seemed upfront about details of failed attempts. Her narrative is a bit odd at times, and she certainly recounted aspects of her swims that made me think "assisted", but I figured that even if she didn't do the swim, there was value in the attempt-- sad that it seems both she and Lance Armstrong and significant potential, but didn't value their honest abilities. Beyond her conflicting accounts and any questions about her swim, the vile lack of sportsmanship documented about Walter's swim is beyond the pale. To be quoted as saying he was not in shape for such a swim??? After what he HAD been able to accomplish leading up to his swim from Cuba, and knowing the demands of a long swim? Bad form.

    Well, I'm just me, and not famous, nor fast, but I'll do my swims and encourage swimmers I come in contact with. Nice to be meeting you all on this forum. Thank you!

    SolodanslosDanSimonellisuziedodsKatieBunJustSwimgregoc
  • Reposted with my name.
    And the word * FACTS*

    DanSimonelliKatieBun
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member

    suziedods said:
    Reposted with my name.
    And the word * FACTS*

    Alternative facts?!?

    @-)

    suziedodsKatieBunJustSwim
  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member
    edited January 2017

    My UK Swimming Times magazine has just arrived, with a nauseatingly saccharine double page spread on DN and her book. sick bucket alert It reads as though the reviewer has just read the book and believed every word.

    The final paragraph is below....it was tough, actually getting this far in the article. Wish I could post the whole thing, but unsure how to do it.... and I'm not sure you'd want to be tortured.

    **"Part memoir, part thriller, I am fully aware of those who questioned the use of some of her swim gear such as the protective bodysuit and face-mask and some of her swim details.

    But this is still a life-affirming tale of chasing a Dream - with a capital D.

    And achieving at 64. And still planning adventures"**

    ...... :-&

    PS If you send them your details, you can WIN a copy. :D

    danslosDanSimonelli
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    My UK Swimming Times magazine has just arrived, with a nauseatingly saccharine double page spread on DN and her book.

    @KatieBun--do they have any on-line presence where we could correct the record? I wasn't able to find a way to contact them.

    Or do you know the name of the author so I can forward some alternative alternative facts?

    <°)))><

    DanSimonelli
  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member

    @danslos The author is Peter Hassall. Thanks @Niek

    danslos
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin

    Here's the Peter Hassall article in Swimming Times for your reading "pleasure."

    http://marathonswimmers.org/assets/nyad/hassall.pdf

    Thank you @captainhaddock and @KatieBun for the scan.

    KatieBunDanSimonelliIronMike
  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member

    @evmo thanks to you and @captainhaddock for compensating for my shortcomings.

  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member

    The last sentence of the article:

    "And still planning adventures!"

    I'll take that as a threat.

    -LBJ

    IronMikeloneswimmerAnthonyMcCarleysuziedods

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member

    Just a bit of a thought experiment here WRT the Wicked Witch of the Wet... You could also call this an attempt at quantifying Donal's Law of Credibility, but based on different criteria.

    1) Let's ignore ALL the Cuba -> Florida swim attempts for a moment, both in the 1970's and the more recent ones. Let's also ignore controversial claims that are not related to a specific swim for the moment as well.

    2) Does there exist a list anywhere of ALL DN's marathon swims/attempts? I read her first book about 40 years ago and seem to remember it mentioning a number of swims, but I am not sure at this late date.

    3) If a full, or fairly full, list has been, or can be, compiled of said swims/attempts, which ones are "controversial"? Let's define "controversial" as a swim in which one or more of the following are true:

    a) A provably false claim has been made by DN

    b) A swim's authenticity, or DN's claim of authenticity, was questioned by someone knowledgeable in the sport, credible and with access to the information of the swim near the actual occurrence of the swim. Thje claim must be backed up by reasonable evidence.

    c) Has been the target of claims and counter claims as to authenticity with at least some strong circumstantial evidence by the "prosecution."

    4) Given the above, what is the ratio of controversial swims to all swims? Let's define the "Credibility Ratio", CR, as 1.0-(C/A), with C being # of controversial swims and A be total # of swims. Then 1.0 >= CR >= 0.0 and we already know that in this case CR is strictly less than 1.0. The lower CR is, the less likely I'd be willing to accept any claim from DN.

    5) Throw in all the Cuba -> Florida attempts, EXCEPT the final one, to the previously mentioned list. Does CR go up or down or stay the same? Any fairly substantial movement downward would give serious pause believing the Cuba -> Florida attempts.

    6) Throw in other claims (e.g. made the Olympic team, swam 96 miles in that 48 hr swim in 2013, etc) and recompute CR.

    7) Based on the CR values at steps 4), 5) and 6), at which step do you start to feel uncomfortable with what you have been told about the LAST Cuba -> Florida attempt? Or do you not feel uncomfortable at any step?

    -LBJ

    IronMikeDanSimonelliloneswimmer

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Speaking of feeling uncomfortable, perhaps this is the time to air the character issues that make me uncomfortable with Nyad. I stick to facts-about-swims on the Fact Check site, so I don't include much of this. But here's a list of the character issues that bother me and that run counter to much of what I believe about marathon swimming:

    1. To Nyad, Marathon Swimming is an attention delivery system for Diana Nyad

    Nyad: "I would not deny that the day to day motivations are fame and fortune.... I want very much to be recognized." ["Diana's Big Splash in the Big Apple," Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinal, Nov. 16, 1975]

    "...Diana was talking about sharks and publicity, cashola and how to get it.... She has always longed to do what cannot be done, to vast acclaim. " ["Marathon Woman: What Makes Diana Nyad Swim," Jane Shapiro, VIVA, November, 1978.]

    "The press have been visiting. Nyad, deftly, continuously promoting, tells the press about other press. 'Everybody will cover this,' she keeps saying—'the networks, the Times—and remember we're still months away, so it's probably going to crescendo. NBC gave $10,000, so—they're believing in this! They're the ones building the credibility of the event.'" [ibid]

    Some people defend Diana Nyad by saying that all the attention is good for marathon swimming. I disagree. Nyad is not out there garnering attention and recognition for marathon swimming. She is out there garnering attention and recognition for Diana Nyad.

    2. Other marathoners barely exist for her

    For example, in FIND A WAY, she talks about swimming in Antarctica:

    "I had been sent to Patagonia for a documentary film, where we’d swim technically below the Antarctic Circle latitude line....

    The daytime air temps are mid-thirties, the water temps about the same, just above freezing. We swim in the thickest wet suits made at that time, a thickness so unmanageable that it takes Candace a couple of hours at dawn each day to yank and drag and squeeze me into that thing.” [FIND A WAY, p. 171]

    ...in "the thickest wet suits made at the time." No mention of Lynne Cox, who swam in Antaractica with no wet suit at all.

    Maybe, though, not mentioning other swimmers is wise, because Nyad can't help but be creepy when she actually does:

    Back in Los Angeles, we get wind that the fantastic Australian champion ocean swimmer Penny Palfrey is in Havana, ready to give the crossing a try.... I am anxious. Maybe even miffed. There is no logic to my thinking it isn’t right for someone else to pursue my Dream. After all, it isn’t my ocean. Nevertheless, it’s only natural that our Team, wishing of course no harm to Penny, hopes she will fall short in the end.

    ...around eleven p.m. and, unbeknownst to us, just a couple of hours later, Penny is pulled from the water....

    ...I admit I was relieved. As a matter of fact, that is a gross understatement. I had steeled myself, once Penny started off from Cuba, to write the Team and post on social media a message of sportsmanship. If Penny made it across, I would congratulate her, sincerely.

    ...I send Penny my regards for her heroic effort. [FIND A WAY, p. 205-206]

    3. Cutthroat attitude

    On other swimmers attempting Cuba-Florida:

    “I like to think myself a sporting person, but I will admit that each time a swimmer would make an attempt at the Cuba-to-Florida crossing and fail, I would do a little happy dance, alone in my living room." [FIND A WAY, p. 117]

    On crew members crewing for other swimmers:

    "I consider [it] a little bit of a traitorous action when someone leaves the team." [Post-swim press conference]

    On finding out that Chloë McCardel's going first in 2013:

    "As I did with Penny, I talk myself off a cliff. And when I answer the media, who want to know how I feel about someone making it before me, I do my best to find grace and sportsmanship. I send Chloë wishes for a safe journey through the Commodore at Marina Hemingway.” [FIND A WAY, p. 244]

    In Nyad's defense, though, at least she's not homicidal. Though she wanted Chloë McCardel to fail, she "didn't want her to be stung or really hurt or die."

    4. Sense of entitlement, part 1: If I want it, it's mine

    She feels that if she wants something badly enough (e.g. swimming from Cuba to Florida), she deserves to have it.

    “If you have a vision, and you’re willing to hold onto it and believe and not lose faith and surround yourself with people who are caring and are smart — that maybe one day you deserve to get there."

    Diana believes putting her mind to any task ensures her success with reasonable time and practice.

    ["Diana's Big Splash in the Big Apple," Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinal, Nov. 16, 1975]

    5. Sense of entitlement, part 2: Rules don't apply to me

    ...I just don’t pay much attention to parameters and restrictions and limiting definitions. My particular brand of 'outsider' mentality started young. I remember observing my outlandishly dramatic father and my lovely but meek mother, at a very young age, and deciding that I was going to carve my own unique path, devise my own rules.

    When Steve Jobs died, Bonnie and I watched the 60 Minutes episode dedicated to him. Somebody said, in effect, 'Steve just didn’t think rules pertained to him. He saw himself operating under some other standards.' His colleagues were continually flabbergasted when Jobs would demand that certain programming or new design platforms be completed on some wildly unrealistic timetable, yet they seemed to somehow produce what he envisioned, on his irrational deadlines.

    When Bonnie and I heard the bit about Jobs being oblivious to laws, she slowly turned toward me and stared. It’s true. Starting with the rules laid down in my house when I was a child, I have never much respected society’s expected standards. A woman asked me after a speech during the Cuba prep how I could train at this level, with the normal aches and pains that come at my age. I answered, 'Don’t put your assumptions of what one is supposed to feel at my age on me. I defy those suppositions of limitations. If you feel aches and pains, say so. But I don’t, and I refuse to follow your or anybody else’s controlling and denigrating parameters of mediocrity.' [FIND A WAY, p. 222]

    6. Emphasis on the negative aspects of swimming

    See "Diana Nyad and Swimming Torture":

    She speaks of the ocean and its perils as though it were her personal enemy, her private torture chamber; she proudly exhibits her battle scars."

    Hence, perhaps, one reason why both of her memoirs contain creepily inappropriate stories about the holocaust.

    "[M]any of the stages of a marathon swim correlate closely with the stages of survival.... Probably the most devastating survival stories during the era of modern man are those of the Nazi concentration camp prisoners...." [OTHER SHORES, p. 142]

    7. Too-Frequent Protestations of Aboveboardness

    "Trust me, this dream [is] too important to me to have any slight thing outside the fair, just, ethical and agreed-upon rules of our sport….”[Marathon Swimmers Forum, Sept, 2013]

    "I'm an absolutely aboveboard person who never cheated on anything in my whole life.... I hope they're not questioning I'm an honest person." [See "Celebration Gives Way to Questions….”]

    But...

    ...As a college student in Atlanta, she was caught in Rich’s department store with some other girl’s shoplifted things in her bag, and although Nyad had been shoplifting routinely for years, she wouldn't say that those particular items were hers. Because it was the other girl’s stuff. So she got kicked out of Emory, and they said she needed 'critical psychological help....'

    It’s true I used to lie, she says. Only to impress myself. I would tell a cab driver a lie—anybody. I don’t have to do that anymore.... [from “What Makes Diana Nyad Swim?", The Village Voice, Feb 2, 1976.]

    Other Illuminating Citations

    ON LANCE

    Lance Armstrong, to my mind, did win all seven of those yellow jerseys. He was no different from the other riders, it was a level playing field, and he was by far the superior among them. [FIND A WAY, p. 98]

    CON HEIR

    [My father] Aris made his living as a con artist. He was superlative at lying and stealing and, from what our family could surmise later, even more egregious criminal activities…. Mind you, in the end, we never could believe anything he said, so even the background is suspect. Con artists are inherently elusive and, true to form, Aris wasn’t around much. He was out playing cards, scheming people into emptying their bank accounts for some fictional project.

    My father was alive with a life-affirming sparkle. He was a showman extraordinaire, the ultimate charmer. He was also an angry tyrant and, worse, a man without a conscience. [FIND A WAY, pp. 27-28]

    evmomjstaplespavlicovIronMikeLeonard_JansenrosemarymintDanSimonellilakesprayKatieBunkimhCoach_Bonnie
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Looks like Ms. Nyad will grace the pages of 'Outside' magazine next month: "...All-Women's 'Icons' Issue.". If you feel inclined to write, as I did, that DN does not deserve to share space with the likes of Abby Wambach, Lindsey Vonn, et al., you can reach the editors of 'Outside' at letters@outsidemag.com.

    DanSimonelli
  • MoCoMoCo Worcester, MASenior Member

    That's disappointing.

    You can also tweet the editor at https://twitter.com/keyeser

    DanSimonellidanslos
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    Need a "gag me" instead of the "like"

    danslos

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Niek, your message is a thing of beauty.

    I just learned that Lake Forest College's newspaper posted an email interview I gave them a few months ago. Unfortunately, the headline concerns the Cuba-Florida swim and not the Olympic Trial lie, which would have been more apropos. Can't have everything I guess.

    evmoIronMikeKatieBunDanSimonelli
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Update on the above interview: Camille Lemieux, editor of the Lake Forest Stentor, very kindly changed the headline to include: "Did Diana Nyad ’73 Lie in her 2015 Commencement Speech?...."

    evmoJSwimKatieBunIronMikeDanSimonelli
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    That is a good interview and well written.

  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    Here's the Outside story: "The Superhero: Diana Nyad." Aaaaargh.

  • bruckbruck San FranciscoMember

    danslos said:
    Here's the Outside story: "The Superhero: Diana Nyad." Aaaaargh.

    The article's author, Stephanie Pearson, can be tweeted at: https://twitter.com/stephanieapears

    suziedodsDanSimonelli
  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber

    I just tweeted to her. gag.

    DanSimonelli
  • Ahitchings95818Ahitchings95818 Sacramento, CAMember

    Outside on-line briefly covered the controversy of the legitimacy of the Cuba swim back in Sept 2013 at: https://www.outsideonline.com/1798956/nyads-cuba-florida-swim-under-attack

    No mention of that in the current issue. Wouldn't want that to get in the way of a "great story". Reminds me of Lance and Livestrong - another "great story".

    DanSimonellidanslos
  • paulmpaulm Senior Member
    edited April 2017

    Hey Niek - Nice post. One correction 'she was 48 hours in the water' is innacurate. Sitting here on the other side of the world I logged on a couple of times during our day/NY night and I timed her doing one of her breaks away from the pool (eg out of the water ) - and she was out of the water for well over 30 minutes (I only started timing after she was out for nearly 10 minutes ) Note- I do get the need for a toilet break but well over 30 mins ??

    the crushing force of a Gulf Stream that blew her dozens of miles off course -- Didn't know that water could blow. Thought that only wind could do that.

    third-degree burns from saltwater chafing -- wikipedia on burn

    Six weeks after her historic landing in Florida, Nyad swam 48 hours straight in an outdoor pool in Manhattan -- NO she was 48 hours in the water but she didn't swim all the time. She also stood several times on the pool bottom and/or hanged on the lane rope.

    Good reporters that check their facts are hard to find these days.

    IronMikeDanSimonellissthomas
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    I believe the correct term for that kind of swim is called a "Hooper"... :D

    Tracy_ClarkssthomasSoloevmo
  • danslosdanslos Los Angeles, CAMem​ber

    I get the feeling that Ms. Pearson's not gonna' be retracting that Outside article any time soon: "I almost missed my flight because I was so excited to finally see this on the newsstand...."

    DanSimonelliIronMike
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member

    danslos said:
    I get the feeling that Ms. Pearson's not gonna' be retracting that Outside article any time soon: "I almost missed my flight because I was so excited to finally see this on the newsstand...."

    "I'm thrilled to see how the magazine has evolved while still maintaining integrity and passion for all things outside"

    Integrity?!?!! ~X(

    IronMike
  • SoloSolo B.C. CanadaSenior Member

    curly said:
    I believe the correct term for that kind of swim is called a "Hooper"... :D

    Ahahahaha! I really needed a joke this morning!

    KatieBun
  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    Done.

    SoloLynnkub

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • lakespraylakespray Senior Member

    To Outside magazine's credit they've actually documented themselves going from Lance Armstrong cheerleader to expose. That being said there was plenty of well documented naysayers prior to changing their stance that they ignored until the evidence became overwhelming. https://www.outsideonline.com/1858541/our-own-words-history-lance-armstrong-coverage-outside#slide-1

    DanSimonelliIronMikeLynnkub
  • rosemarymintrosemarymint Charleston, SCCharter Member

    Niek said:

    I’ve also wrote to the editor but they haven’t had the decency to answer me.

    While I commend you for reaching out to both the reporter and editor, the reason they have yet to respond is 1) it's a holiday weekend and people aren't in a hurry to answer their email and 2) they are less inclined to respond to someone who has written a rather confrontational and insulting letter. Take it from a former reporter: You will always get much farther with journalists if you are professional and not a jerk.

    dc_in_sf
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