It was the suggestion of the Daily News of Open Water Swimming to organize and host the panel discussion that vetted Diana Nyad‘s 52 hour swim from Cuba to Florida.
The first step was to select and recruit the panelists. The goals were to include administrators, kayakers, and swimmers from the marathon swimming world. These panelists included some of the most accomplished marathon swimmers in the world (English Catalina and Catalina Channel record holder and Catalina Channel Swimming Federation founder Penny Dean, Ph.D., Michelle Macy, 14-time English Channel swimmer Marcy MacDonald, and Oceans Seven heroine Michelle Macy). It also included individuals with first-hand experience in the Straits of Florida like International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame members Tim Johnson and Skip Storch) as well as race directors (Ron Collins and David Barra), coaches (Sid Cassidy and Mike Lewis), governing body administrators (Catalina Channel Swimming Federation president Forrest Nelson and Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association board member Evan Morrison) as well as marathon swimmers with observer and crewing experience (Barbara Held Patti Bauernfeind, and Donal Buckley).
The goal was to get a good mix of male and female from different generations, all with extensive ocean swimming background. Because of the nature of the panel discussion (i.e., a teleconference), the participants were overwhelming American with a lone European representative (Donal Buckley of Ireland).
The format was to enable each of the panelists to ask a variety of questions centered around two questions: (1) did Diana Nyad swim from Cuba to Florida, and (2) how did she actually do the swim? Our impressions as moderator of the discussion include, in no particular order:
1. If the panel discussion could have been carried on for 2 more hours, or even longer, it seemed everyone was ready for it.
2. The panelists had the opportunity to ask for specific information that Nyad and her team have and would post online.
* Richard Clifford, escort kayaker
* Penny Dean, Ph.D., former English Channel record holder & USA Swimming Team Coach
* Mike Lewis, open water swimming photojournalist, SwimSwam
* Marcy MacDonald, 14-time English Channel swimmer
* Skip Storch, International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame member
* Sid Cassidy, FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee member
* Tim Johnson, International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame member
* Diana Nyad
* John Bartlett, Navigator
* Roger McVeigh, Observer
* Janet Hinkle, Observer
* Bonnie Stoll, Handler
* Angel Yanagihara, Jellyfish expert
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