“World Record Holder/ Celebrity/ Motivational, Inspirational/ Overcome Adversity/ Riveting Storyteller/ Journalist/ Television Personality/ World Champion/ Hall of Famer/ Author of Three Books”
Over the past twenty years, Diana has earned a reputation as a riveting speaker. She combines her talent for dramatic storytelling with a natural sense of humor and a charismatic stage presence. She never uses notes. She speaks from her heart and her audiences are left both entertained and inspired. In 1979, Diana Nyad plunged into the history books by completing the longest swim in history. The distance was 102.5 miles from the coast of Bimini to the Florida shore. This incredible world record, the longest swim by a man or a woman without the aid of a cage, still stands today. Diana was front page news throughout the Western world, the lead story for Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News, and many times guest of the Tonight Show.
For ten years, Diana was the greatest long-distance swimmer in the world. She broke numerous world records, including the fifty-year-old mark for circling Manhattan Island , in 1975 (7 hours, 57 minutes). In May, 2003, Diana was honored with her induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 1986, she was inducted into the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. She is also a Hall of Famer at both her college and high school.
Diana is currently host of the weekly national radio show, “The Savvy Traveler”. And several million people hear her sports commentary on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” each week. Also on public radio, Diana is the business sports columnist for the popular show, “Marketplace”. She also writes frequently for The New York Times. From 1996 to 2002, Diana was the senior sports correspondent for Fox Sports News, investigating stories such as the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes. She beat CNN and others at the Sydney Games when she broke the C.J. Hunter drug story. Diana started her broadcast career with ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” (1980-1988) and has since covered five Olympic Games and dozens of the premiere sporting events around the world. For many years, Diana hosted USA Network’s coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.
Still a passionate athlete herself, Diana is often called upon as a journalist to participate in the adventure she is covering. She has swum with 100-ton whales in Patagonia , kayaked over 40-foot waterfalls in Borneo , and bicycled 1,200 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam . From 1989-1992, Diana hosted her own show on CNBC, “One on One with Diana Nyad” where she interviewed such diverse guests as Ed Bradley, Julia Child, and John McEnroe. Throughout her journalistic career, Diana has been lauded as a skilled and engaging interviewer. Diana has written three books, “Other Shores”, “Basic Training” and “The Keyshawn Johnson Story”. And she is fluent in French, German and Spanish.