Diana Nyad | Biography, Movie, Book, & Facts (2024)

Diana Nyad (born August 22, 1949, New York City, New York, U.S.) is an American distance swimmer and journalist who, in 2013, became the first person to complete a swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage.

Born Diana Winslow Sneed, she was later adopted by her mother’s second husband and took his surname, Nyad. She grew up mainly in southern Florida and began swimming competitively at the age of 10. After graduating (1973) from Lake Forest College in Illinois, she set several marathon swimming records. In 1974 she finished the 22-mile (35-km) Bay of Naples race in Italy, establishing a new women’s mark of 8 hours 11 minutes. The following year Nyad completed a 28-mile (45-km) swim around New York City’s Manhattan Island in 7 hours 57 minutes, breaking the previous record (set unofficially in 1927) by nearly an hour. In 1979 she swam 102 miles (164 km) from the Bahamian island of North Bimini to Juno Beach, Florida, in 27 hours 30 minutes—at that time the longest ocean swim in history.

In 1978 Nyad first attempted a Cuba-to-Florida crossing, which was some 110 miles (180 km) across the Straits of Florida. She swam with the aid of a shark cage, but rough seas forced her to abandon the effort. After turning 30, she gave up swimming to focus on a career in broadcast journalism, but decades later she decided to take another shot at the goal that had eluded her. She failed twice in 2011, both times without a shark cage: in August she was forced to quit after some 29 hours because of an asthma attack, and in late September her swim was cut short after 40 hours when she sustained painful jellyfish stings. A lightning storm and other obstacles foiled her fourth attempt, in August 2012, after she had spent 60 hours in the water.

The following year, at the age of 64, Nyad made yet another attempt, aided by a 35-person support team that included Bonnie Stoll, her coach and former partner. After 52 hours 54 minutes 18.6 seconds, Nyad completed the epic swim on September 2. In the ensuing days, however, some critics faulted her for not following strict guidelines known as the English Channel rules, which forbid distance swimmers to ever make contact with another person or a support boat. While Nyad acknowledged being touched by members of her support team as she donned or removed specialized gear that protected her against dangerous jellyfish stings—gear that she deemed “a lifesaving necessity”—she insisted that such contact was incidental and that she never touched a boat during the swim.

Nyad was the author of several books, including the memoirs Other Shores (1978) and Find a Way (2015), the latter of which focuses on her historic swim. She was also the subject of the documentary The Other Shore (2013) and the biopic Nyad (2023), which starred Annette Bening in the title role and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll. Nyad was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1978 and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.