Diana Nyad, 66, champion swimmer
Feeling draggy and old? Here’s the antidote, the reason to get your tired behind up off the sofa and get moving!
At 66, Diana Nyad feels she is stronger than ever. In a recent essay for the Los Angeles Times entitled Why 66 Is Better Than 28, she says:
“(These days) I can summon a brute strength I never had back in the day. I was a thoroughbred then, more finely tuned but also somewhat fragile. These days I’m more of a Clydesdale, sturdy and stalwart.”
You know, I feel the same. The older I get, the more solid and less neurotic and high-strung I feel. My behind may look more like a Clydesdale’s than a thoroughbred’s, but I’m healthy and tenacious. You can count on us older folks.
“What I rail against is the blanket limitations put on us by…whom?”
Nyad is clear on this: we limit ourselves, by accepting “weak and faulty statistics, geared for the masses, that pay little respect to the will and potential of the individual…We think our value lies in what age we are perceived to be rather than in…how we’re performing and what we’re experiencing.”
I like this woman’s attitude.
Nyad just came out with her memoir, Find a Way. I just bought the Kindle version. After I read it, I’ll report back, but you don’t have to wait for me. Read her article here, or click on the book to go to Amazon.com and read more about it. (Is this a paid ad, you ask? I only wish! No, the inspiration I expect to obtain from this book will be reward enough.)
Special thanks to Darryl and Pennie Nixon who alerted me to this empowering essay in the LA Times.
Great post and thank you for sharing
My pleasure, Ann. I finished the book last night and will share the gems of Diana’s thinking next Friday.
Looks like a good read. Love her attitude and the image of a Clydesdale.
Pat, I’m about halfway through it, and it’s really interesting. She is a different kind of cat. A privileged yet abusive childhood drove her to swimming (and into the clutches of a coach who was a sexual predator of his charges). Now at the midpoint of the book, she is 60, and coming to terms with her mortality and the remaining time to accomplish her dreams. I’m very much enjoying it.