Celebrating its 21st year, the 2024 Broward County Sports Hall of Fame Awards honors those who have made outstanding contributions to their sport so as to reflect great credit and recognition upon the county. The Hall is honored to recognize the dedication, passion, and excellence that have shaped the rich sports history of Broward County in Florida.

On October 18th at the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, the Hall of Fame will pay tribute to seven individuals, including two swimmers: pool swimmer Abbas Karimi PLY (@abbaskarimiswim) and ocean swimmer Diana Nyad (@diananyad).

WSVN sports anchor Josh Moser will serve as master of ceremonies as the following seven 2024 inductees will be enshrined on the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame Honor Wall located at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida:

• Elliot Bonner, a former football and baseball coach in Broward County
• Darius Butler, a sports personality and former NFL cornerback and safety
• Abbas Karimi PLY, a Paralympic swimmer and 2-time silver medalist at the 2024 Paris Paralympics
• Diana Nyad, a long-distance swimmer
• Steve Shapiro, a former WSVN sports anchor
• Lexi Thompson, a professional golfer on the LPGA tour
• Hollywood Hills High School 1973 4A State Championship Football Team

For more information on the Hall of Fame, visit here.

On Nyad’s website and during her many motivational speeches, she advises people to be inspired, to be engaged, and to be bold.

Being bold is definitely an overriding characteristic of both Nyad and Karimi.

Mohammad Abbas Karimi PLY

Karimi was born in Afghanistan without arms. At the age of 16, Karimi fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban. In 2013, he arrived in Turkey where he lived in four different refugee camps. Three years later, he resettled in Portland, Oregon after being assisted by an American teacher and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2019, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and became a naturalized American citizen in 2022. And won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games with Ellie Marks (@ellie_anne_marks), Zach Shattuck (@zshattuck96), and Leanne Smith (@l.smith.88) won the silver medal in the Mixed 4×50m freestyle relay 20 pts event at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

Diana Nyad

From 1978 to 2013, Nyad made several attempts at realizing her lifelong dream of swimming from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida.

Her first attempt was a well-publicized shark-cage aided attempt that was aborted after 41 hours 49 minutes and she had swum 125 km [see photo below on left]. Her second attempt was performed a mind-boggling 33 years later where she used Shark Shields because she was expecting shark encounters, but neither she nor her support team ever expect to get stung by box jellyfish, the most venomous marine creature on the planet. That second attempt was aborted after a painful 28 hour 43 minute where she had swum after 90.3 km. That same year, a mere six weeks later, Nyad was again pulled from the water after 44 hours 30 minutes where she had swum 148 km, due to a combination of significant currents and box jellyfish stings. She came back nearly a year later in 2012, but her swim was again aborted due to weather, a tropical storm, and box jellyfish stings after 51 hours 5 minutes and 89 km.

“The box jellyfish stings were absolutely horrific to witness,” recalled Steven Munatones who was part of the observation and suppor teams on the second, third, and fourth attempts. “How she was able to carry on for as long as she did was beyond what I thought a human could do. In the second attempt, she and her team had absolutely no idea that box jellyfish would present such a massive obstacle to her dream. But she eventually found a way – her mantra – by creating a stinger suit and custom-made face mask, and using the StingNoMore anti-venom box jellyfish ointment developed by Dr. Angel Yanagihara, that protected her well enough from the jellyfish stings to realize her dream.”

Nyad realized her dream in 2013 after nearly 53 hours when she swam from Marina Hemingway on the shore of Havana to Smathers Beach on the shores of Key West, Florida [shown photo below on the right]. Her backstory and that triumphant crossing were later dramatically depicted in the film NYAD starring Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.