Names have power. In ancient myths, names conferred destiny. A well-named child is marked for greatness. Diana Nyad is someone who understands the power of names. Her father shaped a lifelong belief that their surname “Nyad,” Greek for water nymph, would make her a legendary swimmer. Even decades after retirement, Diana continues actively creating the myth of herself as the world’s most epic endurance swimmer.
Netflix’s 2023 biopic Nyad charts Diana’s comeback to open-ocean marathon swimming after a thirty-year hiatus. Cresting over her 60th birthday, she’s positively allergic to becoming a senior citizen. Although Diana leads a full life, giving motivational talks, doing sportscasting, and playing ping-pong with her best friend Bonnie, she’s aggravated by society’s expectations of women her age.
She balks at the mediocrity she believes the world has embraced. She hammers Bonnie with complaints like, “laziness is contagious” and “… you turn 60 and the world decides you’re a bag of bones.” Her listlessness is heightened after discovering her late mother’s belongings. Reflecting on how her mother was not a doer, Diana vows to do something epic.
Because It’s There…
And so, Diana resolves to tackle her greatest failure, which should have been her life’s crowning glory: swimming non-stop from Cuba to Key West, Florida. At 28, Diana attempted to set the record as the first person to swim this route. But despite her youth and valiant effort, she ultimately quit. Now, thirty years older, Diana is determined to complete the route as the ultimate quest towards redemption.
She sweet-talks (and strongarms) Bonnie, along with an ever-expanding crew of specialists to coach, guide, and protect her on the 100-plus mile swim. Besides battling exhaustion and the sun’s brutal rays, she must contend with dangers like sharks and storms. Diana’s most terrifying adversaries, though, are the swarms of nearly invisible boxer jellyfish, whose tentacles inflict agony at a touch.
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Swimmer
The sport’s rules are explained when Diana speaks to a roomful of children about her goal. Marathon swimmers cannot touch the boat or anyone else during the swim. For practical reasons, they eat, drink, and even pee right in the ocean. The children are both delighted and disgusted to learn this. Like the kids, I imagine most viewers are equally curious about people like Diana.
Why do endurance athletes do it? What motivates them to take on superhuman challenges? In a montage of actual footage from interviews of Diana in her youth, she explains that her reasons are a “complex matter involving my deepest emotions.” Diana admits that she doesn’t want to endure the pain, but knows she’d lose her self-respect if she didn’t face the challenge.
Now, that’s understandable for a woman in the prime of life, but why try again at sixty? For Diana, it’s about being “fully engaged, fully awake, your soul ignited by a purpose…” She also truly believes only she can do it. Arrogance, it’s clear, is a big factor. But while her ego could drown her, it’s also necessary because her Herculean task often feels Sisyphean, as she keeps forcing herself to repeat the route after each crushing defeat.
Just Keep Swimming…
Nyad gives us a glimpse into the mind of an elite athlete through the act of swimming itself. As she swims, Diana enters a dreamlike state. Childhood memories and conversations with her father that would come to define her lifelong values surface in her mind. Hauntingly, she also recalls being sexually assaulted by her coach. The abuse she experienced as a young girl is tragically not uncommon in major-league sports. Yet it’s a testament to Diana’s strength that she says the traumatic event never blew her off course, only fuelled her.
Diana acknowledges that endurance swimming might seem solitary, but it takes a team to succeed. Her biggest champion is her best friend, Bonnie Stoll. Quite literally the Bonnie to Diana’s Clyde, the Grace to her Frankie. It’s encouraging to see depictions of female friendships that aren’t based on competition but support. Even during grocery runs, Bonnie is a natural cheerleader, gently saying, “One-two-three, you can do it,” when Diana drags her feet.
It’s also rare and wonderful to see older people, especially women, as pillars of physical strength. Annette Bening is a beast as Diana Nyad. The woman’s perfect form while planking puts most fitness influencers to shame. As Diana defiantly declares, “I don’t believe in imposed limitations.” She swam against the ocean, time and age, and against the mainstream, and won. It took her only fifty-two hours and fifty-four minutes… and thirty-five years.
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