A decade after she became the first person to swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, without a shark cage, Diana Nyad’s epic journey has been chronicled in a highly anticipated — and contested
The popular sports film “Nyad” dramatizes the charismatic but polarizing long-distance swimmer's later-life success, adapted by Julia Cox from her memoir, “Find a Way,” and directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.
Three decades after retiring from marathon swimming to embark on a second act as a sports journalist, Nyad became obsessed with the feat that had eluded her as a 28-year-old in 1978.
So in 2013, at the age of 64, Nyad completed the 53-hour, 110-mile trek from Cuba to Florida on her fifth attempt, cementing her place as one of the most accomplished swimmers of her discipline.
The Cuba to Florida swim was a dream that never left me and was always in the back of my mind,” Nyad said in an interview that Netflix provided to the media.
When I didn’t make it at 28, I spent a year waiting for visas and the right weather to try again, ultimately becoming so exasperated that I decided to start my broadcasting career and leave the Cuba swim behind.