Find Community. Walk With Diana Nyad.

By Erica and Karen

A new docudrama, Nyad, starring Annette Bening, arrived in theatres on October 20 and will start streaming on Netflix on November 3. The film is about Diana Nyad, the remarkable long distance swimmer.

She doesn’t just swim. She walks. In 2016, Nyad, with her friend, Handler Bonnie Stoll, professional raquetball player and Cuba Swim Head, founded Everwalk because she believes that walking is the key to health, community and empowerment. Everwalk organizes walks, both in person and virtually, around the world. If you like to walk, Everwalk can put a bounce in your step and help you find your people.

Nyad is a woman who doesn’t stop—or give up on her dreams. We first learned of her in 1975 when she swam the 28 miles around Manhattan. (We just couldn’t imagine that—swimming in the East, Harlem and Hudson Rivers!) Then, four years later, she swam from the Bahamas to Florida, this time 102 miles and setting a world record in the process. She was inducted into the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. And then at age 64, without a shark cage, she made her fifth attempt and swam 53 hours from Cuba to Key West—a lifelong dream.

She doesn’t stop there either. She writes books, hosts radio shows, gives lectures. She was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars (finishing last). Her mental stamina is legendary. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, she said that while she swims she thinks of Stephen Hawking books, or sings, or counts, or hallucinates about The Wizard of Oz and the Yellow Brick Road. Not sure how that works, but it clearly does.

We went on a walk in Central Park during Covid. It was cold, but it was a hoot. Nyad is as lively and lovely as ever. And, boy, the energy levels are infectious.

If you can, walk with Diana Nyad. It is a thrill!