FORT LAUDERDALE — Diana Nyad’s crazy dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida began as a little girl, standing on the shores of Fort Lauderdale Beach. Thousands of Cuban refugees had just arrived to South Florida after the revolution. Fascinated, Nyad peered into the horizon.
“Mom, everyone says Cuba is so close, but I can’t see it,” Nyad told her mother. “Where is it?”
Her mother pointed and said, “It’s right there. It’s right across this horizon. As a matter of fact, it’s so close, you little champion swimmer you, you could actually swim there.”
In 2013, after five grueling attempts over 35 years, a 64-year-old Nyad swam from Havana to Key West, becoming the first and only person to do so without using a shark cage. On Thursday, 16 years after her 53-hour swim, the legendary marathon swimmer was back at the same beach as City of Fort Lauderdale officials unveiled a state historic marker dedicated to her.
The marker is on the boardwalk where Las Olas Boulevard meets the beach, across the street from Elbo Room.
“Today we have that opportunity to honor a woman whose courage, perseverance and spirit have inspired people all over the world,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. “But for us here in Fort Lauderdale, this moment is especially meaningful because this is where Diana called home. Her story reminds us that no dream is too big.”
Born in 1949 in New York City, Nyad and her family moved to Fort Lauderdale when she was a child. She attended Pine Crest School in the ‘60s, where she swam competitively. Her childhood home was walking distance from Las Olas Beach. She used to train at the nearby saltwater pool, which no longer exists, and played on the beach with her siblings.
Nyad is also known for several daring long-distance swims, including swims around the island of Manhattan in 1975 and from North Bimini Island in the Bahamas to Juno Beach in 1979. She was inducted into the United States National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.
Her 2013 swim, though remarkable, was met with some controversy, which was revisited in 2023 following the Netflix film “Nyad,” starring Annette Bening as the swimmer. The World Open Water Swimming Association refused to certify the swim due to certain rules and a lack of independent observers.
But in the state of Florida, Nyad’s accomplishment is officially recognized. Lynette Long, the former professor who sponsored the historic marker, said Nyad’s marker is the first in the state dedicated to a member of the LGBTQ community and to a living person.
Long introduced Nyad at the ceremony: “Diana, I know you often quote Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver, so I want to read the last sentence from her poem ‘When Death Comes’: ‘When it’s over, I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened/I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.’ Diana, don’t worry. You didn’t just visit this world. You changed it.”
Nyad quickly cracked a few jokes while on stage.
“One of my greatest achievements that’s been noted today is that I’m still alive,” Nyad said, as the audience laughed. “I guess you can figure if I did that swim 12 years ago at 64 that I’m now 76. And what the f—.”
The crowd was in stitches for much of the ceremony as Nyad, family, friends and colleagues shared heartfelt and tongue-in-cheek stories. Among them was tennis superstar Chris Evert, a Fort Lauderdale native who trained just a few miles from where Nyad did.
Nyad, always an Evert superfan, recalled meeting her years ago at a store on Las Olas. Nyad congratulated her on winning Wimbledon. Evert congratulated Nyad on a photo of her in the newspaper.
Nyad, who also worked as a sports journalist, went on to interview Evert after her matches, including her final U.S. Open in 1989. At the ceremony, Evert said she is still in awe of Nyad and her 2013 swim, which she called “the singular most impressive and tremendous athletic feat.”
“I faced my challenges within the lines of the tennis court, but you, you took on the ocean, the darkness, as everyone said,” Evert said. “The jellyfish, the sharks, the waves, the unpredictability of it all. And you did it with the belief that the human spirit has no finish line.”
The team of people who followed Nyad on a boat during her Cuba swims was in attendance, all wearing blue shirts that read “FIND A WAY.” Nyad thanked each of them profusely for their help and support, including fellow athlete, businesswoman and Nyad’s former coach Bonnie Stoll. While swimming to Key West, Nyad recalled, she only lifted her head up to her left side to breathe. Every time she did, she always saw Stoll, who was keeping an eye on her.
“Bonnie, I think she’ll be OK with me telling you, peed right over the side of the boat,” Nyad said. “Because she refused to let me take a breath and not see her.”
Stoll shared a few words about their friendship. A few weeks ago, Stoll said, the two were playing cards and laughing. Stoll looked at her and said, “I really hope I die before you.” Nyad looked at her, thought to herself for a couple of moments and said, “Me too.”
Nyad said she took many lessons from her Cuba swims. One of them was humility.
“When I was younger, I was much more egocentric. In my 20s, it was all about me. ‘I’m the swimmer, I’m the one suffering out there.’ And yeah, I’d say thank you to my [team] at the end, but I didn’t really believe that I needed them,” Nyad said. “By the time I was in my 60s — a bigger spirit, appreciating Mother Earth more, etc. — I appreciated my team, and I do think that’s the reason I made it.”
The legacy of her 2013 swim, Nyad said, is less about her own personal accomplishment and more about what it meant to other people. The swim connected two countries at odds and inspired people from around the world to never give up.
“Part of the human culture is to fail,” she said. “We all know heartache, we all know disappointment, and sometimes we know tragedy. And what we do with the human condition is we get knocked down, and we get back up and we try again.”
As Nyad pulled the veil off her historic marker on her childhood beach, the sea breeze helped blow it over.