To the Editors,
Kenyon’s Women’s Conference is designed to celebrate community, leadership and the shared triumphs of our alumnae. Simultaneously, Kenyon will celebrate 50 years of its women’s swimming and diving program. The College has chosen open water swimmer Diana Nyad as the keynote speaker. It should not have.
- Nyad’s record as an open water swimmer is highly controversial and has been marked by a litany of false claims. Worse, she and a cohort have engaged in the erasure of other women’s historic achievements:
- Nyad has repeatedly claimed that she placed sixth at the 1968 Olympic Trials in the 100-meter backstroke. The record shows she did not qualify for the Trials and never participated.
- Nyad has claimed she was “the first woman to swim around Manhattan Island.” In fact, she was the seventh.
- Nyad has also claimed national titles she did not achieve and that she held “all the major [open water] records on planet Earth, out in the open sea.” There is no evidence to support this claim.
- A close associate and promoter of Nyad, Steven Munatones, is alleged to have falsified results in the database of the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA), removing the hall of fame competitors of Nyad and placing them in another decade to artificially elevate Nyad’s results in the 1970s. (Mr. Munatones served as a consultant on the Nyad biopic, “Nyad,” and was subsequently sued and forced out of WOWSA.)
- Nyad’s singular athletic achievement, the 2013 Cuba-to-Florida swim, remains controversial. WOWSA has refused to certify the swim due to gaps in the swim’s logs, conflicting observer reports and significant doubts about whether the sport’s rules and protocols were followed.
Nyad’s false claims have diminished and perhaps erased the true, historic achievements of other women. Her role as keynote speaker of Kenyon’s first-ever Women’s Conference is an affront to Kenyon’s values and the historic, transformative role of women at the College. Her invitation should be withdrawn.
Meg Carey ’89
Erin M. Finneran ’89
Jay Henahan ’86
Andrew Martin ’96
Dennis Mulvihill ’88
Melissa Nelson Mulvihill ’90
The Kenyon Collegian cannot verify either the legitimacy of the above claims or of Nyad’s achievements.