Nyad honored on anniversary of triumph

 

By C.S. GILBERT

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

A grateful city and county embraced a grateful hero and made her one of their own Monday, with music, dancing and lots of hugs.

Monroe County Commissioner Heather Carruthers, during the brief but clearly heartfelt ceremony on Labor Day, made endurance swimmer Diana Nyad an Honorary Conch and “proud citizen of the Florida Keys” during the first anniversary celebration of her successful 110.68-mile swim from Havana to Key West in “52 hours 54 minutes 18 seconds,” as the blue T-shirts of her support team attested.

Key West City Commissioner Tony Yaniz took the mic on Smathers Beach, where Nyad emerged, exhausted and dazed from the sea a year ago, to announce he was “born in Cuba and raised in Key West” and couldn’t wait for there to be more trips between the two, a sentiment that won cheers from the crown of more than 200 well-wishers, not counting a mob of photographers and reporters and Nyad’s 30-plus member support team.

Jimmy Weekley, former mayor and now city commissioner, referenced “Climb every mountain . . . till you find your dream” and offered multiple thank yous. “We’ve had many achievements here but none as great as this!”

Michael Shields, chair of the city’s Art in Public Places Committee, unveiled the bronze plaque to mark the event, which he said would be installed on the sea wall just beyond the spot where Nyad, then 64, succeeded in being the first person to make the swim without a shark cage. “An RFP has been sent out to create a statue,” Shields announced, asking for the public’s support for the project.

“Sound cue!” an unamplified voice yelled, giving rise to one of the morning’s more delightful moments. Horn player/composer/lyricist “Island” Alex Okinczyc wrote and recorded a new song just for Nyad: A new “Lady Diana.” As the music began, Commissioner Clayton Lopez swung Nyad out for a dance; he was promptly cut in on by Yaniz, then (to more cheers) by Commissioner Teri Johnson and finally by Weekley, who threw in a skillful dip at the end. (Carruthers may have been in that mix as well, but visibility was limited by the media and the crowd moving in time to the tune.

When the hero took the mic, looking rested and lovely (“You’re beautiful!” numerous fans called out), she was full of gratitude, first for a community that supported her training. Endurance/expedition sports “in Antarctica or the Himalayas require the presence of a team outpost for months, even a year,” Nyad said. “I hit the expedition jackpot. My outpost happened to be Key West.”

She then offered unbounded praise to her Xtreme Dream Team members, particularly her “shark divers, navigators,, medical team, handlers,” Cuban support, Angel Yapeka Harrow of Hawaii, the marine biology professor who is the world’s expert on the “beautiful” but deadly box jellyfish that thwarted her fourth, penultimate attempt and “Bonnie Stoll, captain of this team. For 35 years we’ve had a vision of seeing these palm trees,” she said. She also told the team, “I didn’t do it, we did it.” One team member, Candice Hope, had participated in all five attempts since 1978.

Nyad noted the ongoing support of locals Cindy DeRocher, Vanessa Linsley and Janet Hinkle who, Hinkle said after the program, were among a group of 10 accompanying the international superstar to Cuba the previous weekend to receive an award from the Cuban government. “To hear the U.S. National Anthem played on Cuban soil,” said Hinkle, “Wow. It gave me goose bumps.”

Speaking of her motto, “Never, ever give up!’ she noted that “accolades are not what you get but what you become. All of us face obstacles, all of us have dreams. . . You understand the heart record, not just the sports record.”

Nyad presented Key West with an inscribed, framed photo of the entire team last year and, in conclusion, announced a literal cross-country walk next year, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, ending in Washington, D.C. with a hundred thousand supporters to encourage people to get up on their feet and walk, thus lessening the national epidemic of obesity, childhood and adult diabetes and coronary artery disease.

 

 

 

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