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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDiana Nyad's Team Responds to Skeptics Doubting Her Swim
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 some 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 body suit 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 and concluded that he didn't trust what he saw.
Nyad's navigator and one of the swim's official observers told The Associated Press this weekend that Nyad didn't cheat and that she was aided during the rapid part of her swim by a swift current. And 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 once she got over the reef on her approach to Key West.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/Diana-Nyads-Team-Responds-to-Skeptics-Doubting-Her-Swim--222882561.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_LABrand
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)What fucking argument can anyone have?????
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)liberal N proud
(60,335 posts)That gives conspiracy theorist all they need to demonstrate stupidity.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If the English Channel was warm enough to support a zillion jellyfish it would be appropriate for a swimmer to be protected from them.
Bottom line, she wasn't swimming the English Channel. Tell 'em to go to hell.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)I notice not one of them dove in the water immediately when she was done to show us the "correct" way to do it. Diana Nyad is a hero and a champion and if they don't like it, f*ck em!