Diana Nyad

Diana Nyad is one of those figures who reorders your sense of what's possible. Swimming from Cuba to Florida at 64, through shark-and-jellyfish waters, isn't athletics so much as sheer defiance of the calendar. What moves me most is that her career as a journalist and motivational speaker isn't borrowed inspiration; she lived every word in salt water. From the 1975 Manhattan swim onward, she has treated limits as suggestions. I find her less a swimmer than a walking argument against giving up, and I keep her in mind whenever age starts to feel like an excuse.

Name (English)

Diana Nyad

Name (Japanese)

ダイアナ・ナイアド

Reading

だいあな・ないあど

Born

August 22, 1949 (age 76)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Ox

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Occupation

journalist / motivational speaker / sports journalist / swimmer / squash player

University

Lake Forest College

Awards & achievements

• 2002 Al Schoenfield Media Award
• 2023 Out100

• Official sitehttps://diananyad.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/diananyad
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana%20Nyad
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5271254

Tags

• New York
• journalist
• motivational speaker
• sports journalist

Last updated

2026-06-18

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.