Diana Nyad born August 22, 1949 in New York City is an American, author journalist and long-distance swimmer noted for her world record endurance championships.Over two days in 1979, Nyad swam from Bimini to Florida, setting a distance record for non-stop swimming without a wetsuit that still stands today. She broke numerous world records, including the 45-year-old mark for circling Manhattan Island (7 hrs, 57 min) in 1975. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986. Nyad was honored with her induction in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003.
She currently provides a weekly five-minute radio piece on sports for KCRW called The Score (heard during KCRW’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered”), as well as for the Marketplace radio program. She formerly hosted the public radio program “The Savvy Traveler.” Nyad graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Lake Forest College in 1973. Nyad told a reporter that today–in contrast to her youth–her drive is no longer propelled by attempts to work through the anger manifest from sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager.
On July 8, 2011, the U.S. gay sports website CompeteNetwork reported on her plans for the 2011 Cuba-to-Florida swim, writing that “(the) amazing Diana Nyad is a living legend in the swim world, and a role model for the GBLT community, being openly lesbian.” In September 2011, Nyad announced that she would attempt the Cuba-to-Florida swim once again.