MIAMI — Diana Nyad’s 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida has generated positive publicity and adoration for the 64-year-old endurance athlete — along with skepticism from members of the small community of marathon swimmers who are questioning whether she accomplished the feat honestly.
On social media and the online Marathon Swimmers Forum, long-distance swimmers have been debating whether Nyad got a boost from the boat that was accompanying her — either by getting in it or holding onto it — during a particularly speedy stretch of her swim.
They also question whether she violated the traditions of her sport — many follow strict guidelines known as the English Channel rules — by using a specialized mask and bodysuit 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 who crunched the data available from the GPS positions tracked on Nyad’s website.
Nyad’s navigator and one of the swim’s official observers said Nyad didn’t cheat and that she was aided during the rapid part of her swim by a swift current.
Neither Nyad nor her team ever said she would follow English Channel rules, developed for swimming the waters between England and France. Those rules outlaw neoprene wetsuits and contact with a support boat. Nyad wore a full non-neoprene bodysuit, gloves, booties and a silicone mask at night, when jellyfish are a particular problem, and removed the suit on her approach to Key West.
According to Nyad’s team, she finished the swim Monday after about 53 hours in the water, becoming the first to do so without a shark cage. It was her fifth try.
Many wonder about a roughly seven-hour stretch when Nyad apparently didn’t stop to eat or drink.
And Malinak said the hours-long spike in Nyad’s speed after 27 hours of swimming is particularly questionable — she went from her normal pace of roughly 1.5 mph to more than 3 mph, then slowed down again as she approached Key West.
