Diana Nyad is thinking about couture clothes. No, not super-fancy swimsuits, but the sort of elegant garb people wear on the red carpet, when, say, they’ve got a feature film named after them that’s been nominated for two Oscars. “I’ve been thinking about a Saint Laurent blouse for the ceremony,” she muses during a recent interview. “I’ve never really liked ‘fancy’ clothes, but I do appreciate things that are beautifully made, and I appreciate style.”

Whether it’s on land or sea, many of us have grown to appreciate Nyad’s unique style and personal brand of resilience over the years. When we spoke for this interview, she was preparing for an awards season that culminated with attendance at the Oscars ceremony. The movie Nyad, featuring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, who both received Academy Award nominations for their roles, depicts her nearly 53-hour swim from Cuba to Florida, accomplished without the protection of a shark cage. The film is based on her 2015 memoir, Find a Way: The Inspiring Story of One Woman's Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream, which relates the story of a feat she accomplished in 2013, when she was 64 years old.

Even before the Cuba swim, Nyad was famous for her long-distance swimming accomplishment. She set a speed record for swimming around the island of Manhattan in 1975. In 1979, she swam from North Bimini in the Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida. But the 110.86-mile Cuba-to-Florida crossing took her decades to achieve. Her first attempt, in 1978, ended with rough seas. There were two more failed attempts in 2011, one of which was cut short by an asthma attack and one in which, after 40 hours in the water, she was stung by jellyfish. The next year, she swam for 52 hours but was forced to stop during lightning storms.

If, at this point, you’re thinking, “This seems like it would be a good time to quit,” then you don’t yet appreciate the unconquerable spirit of Diana Nyad.

“What the swim proved to me is that you can’t just give up,” says the 74-year-old writer, motivational speaker and retired long-distance athlete. “I’ve heard from so many people all over the world who look at my story and realize that we all get knocked down and experience heartaches — it’s the human condition. But we must get back up and go on, tapping into our spirit to go again. If we keep getting back up and put more into it, we will get to that other shore, whatever it might be for us.”

Top to bottom: Nyad [right] with her trainer and best friend, Bonnie Stoll, preparing for a long training swim of 14 hours; Nyad psyching up for another long, 12-hour training swim off Key West.

Swimming with Annette Bening

Many of us have probably wondered, “Who would play me in the movie of my life?” Imagine if the answer to that question was Annette Bening, the beloved actress and recipient of five Academy Award nominations. “I swam at Annette’s house a number of times before shooting started,” Nyad says. “Her trainer is a former Olympic swimmer who studied my stroke and taught Annette to mimic it. She was committed to that role, and she never used a stunt double. Sometimes she was in the water eight hours a day.”

With a production that offered many once-in-a-lifetime moments, Nyad remembered one particularly memorable experience with Bening. During filming in the Dominican Republic, Nyad visited the movie set. On the last day, she had the opportunity to swim with the actress who was portraying her. “You can see us together in the very last sequence of shots, after the credits,” Nyad says. “It was magical, being with this person who was playing me, wearing my bathing suit, matching her stroke to mine as we swam. I’ll always be good friends with Annette.”

These days, Nyad still swims, but she’s also become what she describes as a “rabid tennis fanatic,” able to play four to five hours every day. “If I go to a place with warm oceans, like Mexico, the Caribbean or Barcelona, I’ll do some swimming, maybe an hour or so,” she says. “That’s laughable compared to swimming up to 18 hours a day, which I did while training. I probably swim three or four times a week now, which is enough to keep my stroke and muscles in shape. But I have other things I want to do with my time.”

Nyad [left] with Annette Bening in January 2024 at a Telluride Film Festival special tribute event to honor four-time Academy Award nominee Bening with the Gold Medallion Award.

What’s Next, Nyad?

Those “other things” add up to a very full calendar. She’s currently working on a chapter book series for middle schoolers, You’re Never Too Young To Chase Your Dreams. “I was known at the end of the swim for saying you’re never too old to chase your dreams,” she says. “But I’ve realized you’re never too young either, so I’ve mapped out three books right for the series so far. I’m deep into edits for the first one right now.”

Along with coach and longtime friend Bonnie Stoll, who was portrayed in the film by Jodie Foster, Nyad founded a nonprofit, EverWalk, which encourages Americans to get outdoors and walk. The initiative has led long walks through New England, the Pacific Northwest, the Philadelphia and DC corridor, the Southern California coast, the Hudson River Valley, the Santa Fe mesas and the island of Key West. “We did a five-day walk in the Blue Ridge Mountains this spring,” Nyad says.

Nyad and Stoll also formed a company called BravaBody, which is aimed at providing online exercise advice to women over 40.

Following her achievement of her lifetime goal to swim from Cuba to Florida, Nyad gave a TED Talk titled “Never, ever give up.” The video went viral with nearly 7 millions views.

Athlete portrait of Nyad, shot by photographer Catherine Opie.

All other photos courtesy of Diana Nyad

 A Life Fully Lived

“The tragedy of sports is that it’s one of the few professions where you must retire young,” Nyad says. “I was very lucky to get a resurgence of my athletic career in my 60s. Now that I’ve retired, I’ve extracted some precepts from my extreme athletic endeavors, and I follow them today: Dream big. Don’t set the bar too low. Discover for yourself what you can achieve.”

As she prepares for her milestone 75th birthday this summer, Nyad says that she’s intense, awake and aware. She went on to say, “I’m not letting my life glide by unconsciously, and I’m aware each day that I’ll never be able to live that 24 hours ever again. When my head hits the pillow at night, I’m always sure there’s nothing more I could have done that day. I’m just so aware of how beautiful and rare life is.”

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