![]() ![]() The way Slosberg sees things, any true story from Nyad is remarkable. Both Bening and Foster are already being touted as contenders for Academy Awards for their work in the film, which in early press releases the producers said is based on “the remarkable true story” of Nyad’s Cuba crossing. The movie, titled Nyad and starring Annette Bening as the title character and Jodie Foster as her best pal and occasional coach and girlfriend, Bonnie Stoll, recounts the swimming event regarded as Nyad's most momentous: her 2013 crossing of the Florida Straits from Cuba to the U.S. In September, the trailer for a feature film based on Nyad's memoir was released. Slosberg's quest for untruth has recently been reinvigorated by Hollywood. Through all this telling he pulled me deeper and deeper into his own life, which for many years now has revolved around attempts to expose the woman who he recently called "the greatest con artist in the history of marathon swimming." He'd go on to tell me about lots more stories and accomplishments that he and others believe Nyad has exaggerated, stretched to untruth, or wholly invented throughout her career as a swimmer and motivational speaker. He provided me with various newspaper clippings and links to sites with race results from the ‘68 swimming trials, none of which had Nyad’s name.īut what about Nyad’s shoulders bearing the weight of the world? And that precocious pal with the poolside pep talk offering life-altering wisdom better than Confucius? And all that contemplating a fingernail? None of that happened? ![]() Retton, Joyner-Kersee, Barr, and the studio audience all erupted in applause at the punchline.Īs Slosberg can and will tell you, Nyad has told different versions of her Olympic trials fingernail story a whole lot through the years in motivational speeches, though always with the lemonade-from-lemons moral.Īnd why shouldn’t she? Well, Slosberg’s got a big reveal of his own: “Diana Nyad was not at the Olympic trials,” he told me. “So I couldn’t have done it a fingernail better!” But, using the advice from her younger friend-wisdom she termed “better than Confucius”-Nyad left the trials content and “went on to break world records” and live the best life. Don’t figure out if you’re in the top three and you’re going to Mexico City! Close your eyes and say, I couldn’t have done it a fingernail faster! And she said, ‘I guarantee, you can say that, everything will be all right.’”Īs any fine storyteller would, Nyad ended her tale with a shocking reveal followed by a crowd-pleasing kicker: She didn't make that ‘68 Olympic team. Why don’t we just pick a little fingernail!’ Not very poetic, but it was so true! She said, ‘Why don’t you dive in and swim with your shoulders and your guts and your heart, and when you finish, don’t look at the scoreboard. It’s like the weight of the world is on your shoulders! You’ve got to stop thinking about this, 10 years and what it all meant and it’s all going to be for nothing if you don’t make it! Let’s think of something small like the tennis players think of the fuzz on the tennis ball. And a friend came, a 16-year-old girl, with such wisdom! And she shook me, like, shook me awake! She said, ‘Diana, I see what’s going on with you. And this one little moment, it’s just like the weight of the world on your shoulders. “You’re so scared because you’ve given up childhood, adolescence. And I was scared to death,” Nyad continued breathlessly, her fists clenched and waving. ![]() “And 10 years of the hours Mary Lou was just talking about, eight hours a day, that’s no exaggeration! Eight hours a day, when you’re 8, 9, and 10 years old! And as Mary Lou said, no one makes you do that! That comes from … guts! And it comes from something deep, deep inside you. “I was gonna swim a 100-meter race, lasts about a minute, and either wear the USA uniform and stand up on an Olympic medal stand, or not and go on to the rest of my life,” Nyad said as the host, Rosanne Barr, and Olympic legends Mary Lou Retton and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, looked on. Slosberg, a former participant in the niche sport of endurance swimming where Nyad toiled, directs me to the part of the show where Nyad recalled with passion her participation in the Olympic trials, where she claims to have competed as a 17-year-old hoping to secure a spot at the Mexico City Games of 1968. Among the guests is Diana Nyad, who at the time was the most famous female swimmer this country ever produced. ![]() It's from an October 1998 episode of The Roseanne Show. Daniel Slosberg wants me to watch a TV clip. ![]()
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