Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old endurance swimmer who swam from Cuba to Florida over Labor Day weekend, was criticized by her peers in the marathon swimming community. But she is now defending her record, claiming that the swim was “squeaky-clean.”
Nyad, 64, finally completed the swim on her fifth attempt, making her the first person to make the 110-mile swim from Havana to Key West without a shark cage. While she was praised for finally reaching her dream, earlier this week, some in the marathon swimming community raised questions about Nyad’s feat.
Members of the Marathon Swimmers Forum claimed that she had help from the boat following her and that the record shouldn’t count because she wore a mask. She had said that the mask was necessary in order to protect her from jellyfish stings.
Nyad told The Associated Press today that she believed that the sport allows for a swimmer to set the ground rules if he or she is the first person to complete the swim. She set up her “Florida Straits Rules” according to previous rules in the sport, but noted that she needed a full-body suit and the face mask.
“It is the only way. The swim requires it,” Nyad told the AP. “I don't mean to fly in the face of your rules, but for my own life's safety, a literal life-and-death measure, that's the way we did it.”
She insists that she never left the water and her team only helped her during the swim to help with the jellyfish suit and to give her food.
“I swam,” she said. “We made it, our team, from the rocks of Cuba to the beach of Florida, in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion.”
Marathon Swimmer Forum’s Evan Morrison told the AP that he’s happy that Nyad will make the data from her swim public to “give us a fuller picture of the achievement.”
Nyad explained that she never even knew about the controversy until she heard it on the news. “First of all, I was trying to feel some joy,” she said.