GPS Data Vindicates Nyad’s Record-Setting Swim

On Saturday, August 31, 2013, Diana Nyad entered the waters of the Gulf of Mexico wearing a bodysuit, gloves, a mask, and booties and began her fifth attempt to swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida. She emerged from the water on Smathers Beach in Key West approximately 53 hours later, on Monday, September 2—Labor Day—after swimming 110 miles. She was the first person to make the swim from Cuba to Florida without using a shark cage.

It was an amazing feat, achieved by a woman who has dedicated her life to the sport of long-distance swimming. In the weeks after she completed the swim, she was interviewed by Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey and met with President Barack Obama.

Biographical Information

Nyad was born in New York City in 1949, making her 64 years old when she completed the swim from Cuba to Florida. Her family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when she was in seventh grade, and it was there that she began swimming competitively. It was while she was enrolled at Lake Forest College in Illinois that she started participating in marathon swimming.

Her notable achievements include:

• 1970: Swam across Lake Ontario (10 miles)


• 1974: Set women’s record in Bay of Naples race (22 miles)


• 1975: Swam around the Island of Manhattan (28 miles)


• 1978: Other Shores, her autobiography, was published


• 1979: Completed longest swim in history, Bimini to Florida, 102.5 miles


• 1981: Published Basic Training for Women


• 1986: Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame


• 1999: Published Boss of Me: The Keshawn Johnson Story

Previous Attempts

This successful attempt marked a completion of a goal Nyad had set for herself as far back as 1978. Her first four attempts were not successful.

• August 13, 1978: Nyad tries her first Cuba-to-Florida swim. In this initial attempt, she utilized a 20′-by-40′ shark cage for safety. Unfortunately, rough seas ended up causing her to veer off course and forced her against the sides of the cage. She swam a total of more than 75 miles before her doctors called an end to the attempt.


• August 7, 2011: Nyad’s second attempt was made without the use of a shark cage. However, plagued by shoulder pain and asthma as well as currents that pushed her off course, Nyad halted the attempt after 29 hours.


• September 23, 2011: Only a month and a half after her second attempt, Nyad was back in the Gulf waters again. This attempt, though, was frustrated by repeated encounters with box jellyfish. The stings caused her to have difficulty breathing, so she stopped the swim.


• August 18, 2012: Nyad covered more distance in her fourth attempt than she had in any of the previous three. However, she stopped the attempt on August 21 because of jellyfish stings once again.


• August 31–September 1, 2013: Nyad completes her Cuba-to-Florida swim without using a shark cage—the first person ever to do so.

Enter the Skeptics

As with any world-record feat, skeptics were quick to question Nyad’s success. Had she cheated? Had she hung onto a boat at some point? How was it that her speed dramatically increased during one section of the swim?

The mysterious increase of speed occurred roughly between Nyad’s 25^th and 32^nd hours in the water. Her average miles per hour up to that point was approximately 1.5. During the time in question, the average jumped to an average of 3 miles per hour—a doubling of the speed. In fact, just before the thirty-hour mark she reached her highest speed on the swim—nearly 5 miles per hour.

Skeptics also point out that there were no independent witnesses along on the trip; Nyad’s crew consisted of her team and others with personal ties to her. And they say that an unedited, uninterrupted video of the swim should have been recorded to verify the events.

Just a few days after completing the swim, Nyad agreed to turn over all her information about the swim—observer logs and navigational information, including GPS data. Nyad asserted that she swam “ethically” and “honored the rules.” That means that at no point did she leave the water nor did she use swim fins.

Vindication

After analyzing the GPS tracking data as well as the Gulf Stream, the New York Times determined that during the fastest part of her swim, Nyad was aided by the Gulf Stream current. A professional oceanographer verified the fact that the Gulf Stream—which normally flows from west to east in that part of the Gulf—was flowing from south to north during Nyad’s August/September 2013 swim. In effect, rather than working against her as it had on previous swims, Mother Nature was aiding Nyad this time around.

GPS Data Vindicates Nyad’s Record-Setting Swim