Behind the True Story of Annette Bening’s Netflix Movie Nyad: All About Marathon Swimmer Diana Nyad

Ten years ago, Diana Nyad achieved a historic feat, cementing her reputation as one of the world’s most accomplished marathon swimmers.

New Netflix movie Nyadstarring Annette Bening, recreates the real-life story of a swimmer’s obsession, after turning 60, with the “Mount Everest” of ocean swimming: the 110-mile course from Cuba to Key West, Florida.

Nyad, now 74, has written four books, including a 2016 memoir Find a way, who detailed the philosophy and experiences behind her dogged determination to come out of swimming retirement and finish what she started years before — at what most assume was the pinnacle of her athletic career. “I failed and stumbled many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened by the paralysis of fear and inaction,” she wrote.

Screenwriter Julie Cox’s adaptation of Nyad’s memoir, directed Free Solo Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and commentator Jodie Foster, Nyad is in theaters and available to stream on Netflix. Read on for the incredible true story of the woman who inspired him.

Who is Diana Nyad?

Nyad was born in New York but moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida shortly after her mother’s second husband adopted her. Her swimming career, she said The New Yorkershe got her start under former Olympian Jack Nelson, who coached her as a teenager until she became the Florida state champion in the backstroke.

After graduating with degrees in English and French from Lake Forest College in Illinois, Nyad entered New York University in 1973 to study doctoral studies in comparative literature. During the 1970s, her marathon swimming career flourished, garnering national attention including appearances at Saturday night live and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She then transitioned to a career in sports journalism, with her work appearing in print publications, morning news and public radio.

An out lesbian, Nyad now lives in Los Angeles. After initially sharing her opinion that trans athletes should be celebrated but not competed with cisgender women in elite sport, Nyad told Out in October that she “stands firmly on the side of inclusion… We are all sisters and brothers under the sky, and we should all have equal opportunities to play the sports we choose, the sports we love.”

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Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll and Annette Bening as Diana Nyad in “Nyad.”

Kimberley French/Netflix

What notable marathon swim has she completed?

Nyad gained widespread fame after her second attempt to swim across the island of Manhattan in 1975. Her time of 7 hours 57 minutes broke the 50-year-old record and was the first attempt in many years.

Per The New Yorkershe also set a world record for women in the 22-mile route from Capri to Naples, Italy, and became the first person to swim north-south across Lake Ontario.

In 1979, she completed the 102-mile course from the Bahamian island of Bimini to Florida in just over 27 hours, setting another world record. Completing the feat on her 30th birthday, Nyad decided it would be her last competitive swim ever.

A year before, Nyad had tried to swim from Cuba to Florida for the first time, inside a steel cage that protected her from sharks and other sea creatures. In total, she swam 76 miles and clocked almost 42 hours, but veered off course into the Gulf of Mexico, failing to finish.

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Diana Nyad 2019.

Bryan Bedder/Getty

What is the history of swimming from Cuba to Florida and how many times has Nyad attempted it?

From the 110 miles from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, Nyad told NPR in 2015, “You can’t find a stretch of ocean that’s more rich with Mother Nature on steroids — for a swimmer — than you can across the Florida Straits.”

The journey was first attempted by long-distance swimmer Walter Poenisch, then the Guinness World Record holder for the longest ocean swim: 125 miles in the Florida Straits. In July 1978, two days before Nyad attempted her first Cuba-Florida swim, Poenisch, then 65, became the first person to do so.

In fact, both Poenisch and Susie Maroney, who became the first woman to complete the infamous swim in 1997, used a protective cage that surrounded them in the shark-infested waters of the bay. Poenisch also followed International Federation of Ocean Swimmers and Divers rules that required him to be allowed fins and short rests on the accompanying vessel, but did not apply for recognition of the unprecedented swim. Doubts about his uncertified swim led Poenisch to sue several parties including the International Swimming Hall of Fame and Nyad. He won an out-of-court settlement and an apology from Nyad, who retracted her comments – including that he was a “cheater” and that his swimming was “not legal”.

After 30 years of not swimming, Nyad started training at the age of 60 with the aim of finishing what she started. With the help of a team of doctors, scientists and navigators of the Gulf of Mexico, she tried twice to swim across Cuba to Florida in 2011, first for 29 hours and then for 41 hours. Nyad veered off course and was content with shoulder pain, asthma, and jellyfish and Portuguese man-of-war stings. In her fourth attempt the following year, she completed the longest distance ever in 42 hours.

Diana Nyad forced to abort 103 mile swim

On her fifth attempt, on September 2, 2013, Nyad completed the swim from Cuba to Florida amid favorable weather and currents. As she stood with her supporters on Smathers Beach in Key West after a 52-hour, 54-minute swim, she said she had “three messages: one is that we should never give up; the other is that you’re never too old to follow your dreams; and the third is it looks like a lonely sport, but it’s a team.”

Becoming the first person to swim without a safety cage, Nyad used only an electronic shark repeller, as well as a mask, gloves, boots and a full suit to protect against fatal stings.

Was she a victim of sexual assault?

In 2017, Nyad wrote the byline for The New York Times detailing the sexual assaults she suffered as a teenager at the hands of Nelson, her swimming coach. It wasn’t the first time she shared accusations; in the essay, Nyad recalled confiding in a teammate who turned out to have the same experience. They came forward with their allegations in 1971 and Nelson was fired from Pine Crest School.

“I have tried many times in my life to stand up to this deviant, this criminal who attacked me and left me with shame, left me with humiliation, left me with anger,” she told PEOPLE in 2017.

Nyad also revealed how her reaction to Nelson’s attacks fueled her determination as an athlete. “All that ocean swimming I did in the ’70s was just filled with rage,” she told Out. “And sometimes anger is very powerful.”

Diana Nyad in 2015.

John Lamparski/WireImage

Who is Bonnie Stoll?

Bonnie Stoll, 71, is Nyad’s longtime friend and, ahead of the swimmer’s later attempts to complete the Cuba-Florida course, coach and guide. On all four of Nyada’s swims, she led a team of 40 people stationed on a support boat, providing the athlete with water, food and encouragement.

Per The New Yorker, the two first met in their 30s playing racquetball; they dated briefly before becoming friends.

Along with Nyada, Stoll started the online exercise company BravaBody, which was last active in 2011. The pair founded the nonprofit Everwalk, promoting healthy exercise.

Before the release of the film Nyad, Stoll told PEOPLE that her friend “can be prickly … Diana definitely had that determination and tunnel vision. People can see the determination and attitude she had, absolutely. But she appreciated every one of her teammates.”

Diana Nyad ready for a 48-hour swim after her 53-hour history maker

Annette Bening as Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll in “Nyad”.

Kimberley French/Netflix

What is Nyad up to now?

In the years since her historic swim and the publication of her memoir, Nyad has given motivational speeches and appeared on talk shows to share her experience. In 2014, she competed in the 18th season Dancing with the stars.

Her 2013 TED talk titled “Never, Never Give Up” has been viewed millions of times. In 2019, she performed a solo performance, Courage to fail, off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre.

This September, Nyad marked the 10th anniversary of her historic swim on her website, writing, “My legacy is not so much the marks in the record books. What I hope has bled a large population is hope. I hope I believe they can reach any other coast they’re chasing.”

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The swimmer also met Bening and the filmmakers behind it Nyad, who invited her to the set in the Dominican Republic. The Oscar-nominated actress “showed remarkable stamina,” Nyad said, according to Netflix’s press notes. “She worked for a year to prepare for this, and it showed. Bonnie and I couldn’t wait to be played by these two actresses.”

Nyad“an extraordinary true story of perseverance, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit,” according to the official synopsis, starring Rhys Ifans, Ethan Jones Romero, Luke Cosgrove, Jeena Yi and Eric T. Miller. It starts streaming on Netflix on Friday.

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Source: HIS Education