A week ago, Diana Nyad completed the 110-mile swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. It was her fifth try, but after battling sun exposure and jellyfish, she finally completed the feat. Now, her fellow long-distance swimmers are skeptical of her accomplishment, doubting that she really did it.
The Associated Press reports that an online Marathon Swimmers Forum is full of swimmers who are saying Nyad probably received help from the boat that followed her – either by holding on or taking a break in the boat. Others say she didn't follow the traditions of her support since she wore a silicone mask and a wetsuit to protect herself from jellyfish.
"When you know how hard it is, you kind of want those details," said Andrew Malinak, a Seattle long-distance swimmer said when he looked at Nyad's data, particularly one stretch that she made surprisingly impressive time on. Nyad's progress was tracked online through GPS, but some people are speculating that information may be missing from the data. Around 27 hours into her swim, Nyad increased her speed from 1.5 mph to about 3 mph and then slowed back down – a suspicious statistic.
Nyad further withheld information from accomplishment, reports National Geographic, including speed, number of strokes, feeding schedule, and GPS coordinates. "If she's accomplished what she's claiming to accomplish … I wonder why she wouldn't take the extra steps to make sure people believe it was actually true," swimmer Evan Morrison said.
However, Nyad's team reported that she did not cheat at all – the speed can be explained by fast-moving currents. Additionaly, Nyad never claimed to have followed the traditional rules of English Channel swimming.
"At some points we were doing almost 4 miles an hour," the swimmer's navigator said. "That's just the way it works. If the current is in your favor at all, that explains it."
Coach Steve Munatones also addressed the wet suit, saying that it actually weighed Nyad down. "To put that on is like putting on a wedding gown in the ocean," he said. "It's different from the English Channel rules, but the water is different from the English Channel."
Janet Hinkle, an observer for the swim, further reported, "I can say unequivocally she swam every stroke without question.” When critics speculated that Hinkle was too close a friend to Nyad, Hinkle defended her by saying, "I think anyone who knows me knows me as a person of high integrity. I believe that's why Diana asked me, and I took my job very seriously.”
The elaborate, full-body wet suit and protective mask Nyad wore to protect herself from venomous jellyfish actually weighed her down, Munatones said.
Her fellow swimmers claim that they aren't trying to discredit Nyad, but to improve their sport.
"For those of us who live by this, breathe by it, [and] study currents [to] try to model swims [by] calculating their speed, their tides, and the current and wind direction, this is a big deal,'' New York swimmer David Barra said. "This information matters, and not only do we want to know for the purpose of recognizing this swim, we want to know for the purpose of other people who want to make an attempt at this swim, who want to repeat this."