61y.o. woman to attempt swim of 100+ miles open ocean from Cuba to Key West

[aceplace57]

This article sums it up. I’m not sure what to think. It could be jealously or maybe the other marahon swimmers are right? I’d guess it’s a small clique of people that swim these incredible distances. Nyad’s peers are the people she has to satisfy for this record to mean very much.

In the wake of 64-year-old Diana Nyad completing her life-long dream of swimming the 110 miles between Cuba and Florida, some hardcore open-water swimmers are saying she had to have cheated.

The criticism is mainly coming from some people on a MarathonSwimming.org message board.

Based on GPS data that showed a spike in average speed during the middle portion of her swim, commenters believe that Nyad didn’t swim the whole way, and perhaps even rode on her support boat for a few hours.

Read more: The Diana Nyad Cheating Conspiracy Theory - Business Insider

Nyad didn’t have her crew take continuous video during the 53-hour swim, and didn’t have independent media on her support boat. In addition, commenters claim that the independent observers who verified her swim were biased because they had prior relationships with Nyad

[aceplace57]

I’m just passing on information. I’m not a long distance swimmer and certainly not in any position to form any opinion.

[Waenara]

@aceplace57

This article sums it up. I’m not sure what to think. It could be jealously or maybe the other marahon swimmers are right? I’d guess it’s a small clique of people that swim these incredible distances. Nyad’s peers are the people she has to satisfy for this record to mean very much.

That article also says that:

An oceanographer from Australia looked into the data after someone e-mailed him to ask if Nyad was lying, and he says the currents really were crazy that day. He told the Guardian:

“Many times that current runs west-east and you’re constantly fighting the current if you’re swimming north. In this case, it was in the shape of an S, and the angle was almost exactly from Havana to Key West.”

They also link to this article, which states:

An oceanographer not affiliated with Nyad’s team said the swimmer couldn’t have picked a more perfect current to get from Havana to Key West.

Mitch Roffer of Melbourne-based Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service Inc said he got an email questioning whether Nyad’s swim was a hoax, so he decided to look at the charts for himself. What he saw convinced him that she could do it.

[Edward_The_Head]

I can kind of go over the issues quickly as I understand the rules they are talking about. A lot of the rules come from the first guy to swim the English Channel and are usually called the EC rules.

The biggest rules are, no touching of boats, this makes sense as one could just grab on and go for a ride. Another one, one that I’ve never fully understood, is no one else is allowed to touch the swimmer either. I’ve seen a lot of people upset that she had people helping to put on her sunscreen and the like when she was in the water.

There are also people who are upset because she didn’t have someone not associated with her along during the trip so there’s no one to be able to say yes she did it.

I find a lot of the rules outdated, if we used 120+ year old rules in swimming in the pool it would be crazy. I get not being pulled or something giving the swimmer extra help, but one can have a boat touch them and have the whole swim nullified which seems crazy to me.

[lawoot]

A friend of mine is the head of the Department of Marine Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. He posted this picture to facebook, showing what the currents were like on the day in question:

Here’s a satellite image and modeled ocean currents for the day Diana Nyad finished her swim. You can see those strong currents between Cuba and Florida.

(and here’s the Department’s facebook page.)