NEW YORK: US long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad vigorously defended her record-breaking, 177km swim from Cuba to southern Florida after skeptics raised questions about the grueling trek.
“I swam … in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion,” Nyad told a conference call late on Tuesday that included journalists and fellow marathon swimmers, some of whom have publicly questioned aspects of her challenging journey.
“I honoured the rules,” Nyad said at the start of the conference call. “I was an ethical swimmer.”
A triumphant Nyad, 64, staggered ashore in Key West, Florida, on September 2, after having swum about 53 hours, to become the first person to complete the treacherous crossing without a shark cage.
Nyad’s swim was her fifth attempt and only successful one. The highly publicized crossing sparked a social media debate about whether her journey meets the requirements to break the world record.
Some have questioned how Nyad was able to more than double her pace about halfway to Florida, and have wondered whether she was towed at any points by tracking boats.
Marathon swimmer Evan Morrison was among a number of members of the long-distance swimming community who publicly questioned Nyad’s feat on social media.
“In reading through Diana’s crew’s live-blog, trying to suss out how this incredible swim happened, I was struck by how little information there actually was,” Morrison wrote on the online Marathon Swimmers Forum.
“These details matter because Ms. Nyad is claiming – and the media reporting without fact-checking – a new world record for longest-distance nonstop, unassisted ocean swim,” he said.
Nyad’s pace quickened significantly about halfway through the swim – from her average (2.4kph) to nearly 6.4kph – a swift pace that continued for about six hours.
She and her supporters have said that she got a significant boost from a favourable Gulf stream current – a contention that independent experts who study the ocean currents in the region agreed with on Tuesday. (Reuters)