Off topic, but I love defector's business model. I have been a subscriber since day one. However, the article is paywalled and most wont be able to read it.

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Strava

That was an interesting read. She's certainly controversial. I will probably watch the movie when it releases on Netflix.

I had no problem reading it. I'm also not in the US, so maybe that's part of it?

I have seen that article and it paints a lifelong journey of lying and misdirecting by her. It is sad for me to see, as I once knew her in the old days when she was the first swim commentator for the very first Kona Ironman. But I have known many like her, who get trapped into fudging in the beginning, and it leads to outright lying and cheating if not stopped somewhere down the line. I think we had a tragic example of this with Frank Meza and his running exploits.

Unfortunately she has gotten a ton of mainstream publicity and it will be hard to nudge that needle. Perhaps the next Netflix special will be the complete undoing of her career now that they have made her a hero..Very famous triathlete comes to mind in this same area, cheating and lying their whole career, and hardly anyone knows or cares to know...

Lance Armstrong?
Kevin Moats?
Dmitry Gaag?

He said very famous and he didn’t say professional.

I can think of one that used to post on this forum.

I care to know. Who are you talking about Monty?

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

Fascinating read. Thanks for sharing.

She is 100% a con in every way. Starting with claiming she swam in an Olympic trials and finished 5th/6th (in different tellings of the lie) when she was never there at all... anyone who would lie about something like that has serious problems.

Sister Madonna

Seriously???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

LOL, oh yeah. I recall the stories of Sister Madonna.

Can you share or would that violate ST forum rules??? If you want, you could send me a PM. I'm very curious since she was put up on such a pedestal as a role model and saintly person.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Thank you for the article!

I'd never heard of her, or the story, wow. I'd have been fooled by the film for sure.

Incredible story, thanks again.

+1 to the other requests to say who this is! You can't leave us in suspense!

https://triathloninspires.com/iron-nun-madonna-budder/
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...der_Update_P4548283/

Sister Madonna had many rumors over the years of various rule infractions or being "helped" to finish; she was a great PR story for Ironman. Nothing, as far as I'm aware, is substantiated with evidence.

But, speaking generally, if something seems too good to be true it frequently is.

Quibble with the claim of the first paragraph, "who at the time was the most famous female swimmer this country ever produced."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember that time. It was back when I viewed the Olympics with childhood romanticism and watched every event I could. And I don't think I knew who Nyad was, but I knew about Janet Evans and Dara Torres. Maybe I'm not representative of the mainstream U.S., though. I only learned who Nyad was much later, maybe on this forum.

Now I'm far more cynical and am barely aware of the Olympics when they're happening, except for a few events. :(

There's a lot of stuff in years past before multiple timing mats, cameras everywhere and widespread use of GPS devices.

I only have a fuzzy memory of something that I saw over a decade ago. Did it happen? Was it a dream? The brain is a funny thing...

newbz?

(this is a joke)

I did a marathon with her 15 years ago. It was so inspiring to run past her those 3 or 4 times.

Was newbz the flipper guy at IM Florida or the guy who cut swim courses and then stole his competitions shoes from T1 in order to further ensure victory?

He was the guy that cut courses in Ohio races. I vaguely remember the shoe incident but can't remember who was to blame.

The flipper guy at IM Florida was Finman - Frank Cardia. That is one of the Slowtwitch classics :)

That was him, he was a local guy here in AZ. Young guy, I can't recall his name, with going pro aspirations although he wasn't that good.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
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Thanks for the link, truly fascinating article. And it is accessible for free, you just have to register an email address and then you can read the whole thing.

Plus, there is this enormous stockpile of evidence, no need to even register:
http://www.nyadfactcheck.com


I think its a hard pass on the netflix movie. How in the world did this flick even get made? Did no one do any due diligence research to see that this woman is not a great swimmer but is instead just a pathological liar??

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Maybe that's part of the movie? It's not a documentary; so they can tell it any way they want - there are at least two biopix about Prefontaine, done in different styles, with "a few" corroborating events/elements, where astute or learned viewers can say "that's not right"'or "that's not how it happened" or "they made that up"


Same as any other movie: someone finds a story & writes a script, they shop the script around, a producer picks it up and gets a director & some actors

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yeah, I understand artistic license, but here's the thing, Steve Prefontaine was actually one of the best american distance runners of all time. And (as far as I know) he was not a pathological liar.

I understand generally how movies are made, but movies cost money and that money comes from investors that want their money back and more (we'll ignore any movies funded by the mob here). If you want to make money, generally one would want to vet one's investment vehicle. And generally movies made to glorify an athlete that lied about nearly all of her accomplishments are not likely to be big hits. But YMMV ...

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Jodie Foster - 2x Oscar Winner; 4x Oscar Nominee
Annette Benning - 4x Oscar Nominee
Jimmy Chin - Oscar Winner (Free Solo)

Heavy cred, there

Jodie Foster certainly did her research, but said "Yeah, I'll do it, anyway. I still need to defrost after True Detective"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

If you're not aware, Netflix has come under scrutiny for throwing away so much money on content lately, so it's not really surprising if the level of due diligence they did on any movie was in choosing what color pen to sign the check with.

I was definitely not aware. But l am sure am now.

I wonder if the publicity from this ill-fated movie will be another case of the "lance armstrong effect"? You know, lance was a long-time cheater, but no one really cared. But, then, when Lance came back from his "retirement" and threw his "results" into people's faces, then it all came crashing down on him.

Kind of hope so. Because I am not a fan of cheaters and liars like Nyad who repeatedly put down and diminish the accomplishments of legitimate and honest athletes.

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There are a many series on Netflix which I was really into the first couple or few seasons that I've dropped the ball on for their finales: Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, Glow, Cobra Kai, Dead To Me

****

If someone sees this in their feed, and says (with no other knowledge)

"Oh! Is this the woman who kept trying to swim from Cuba to Florida? We could watch this"

If they turn it off after 20 minutes, for whatever reason, does that count as "watched?" Or do you have to stay till the end? Though the post-credits scene?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Hollywood writers and actors have been on strike for the last while and metrics from the streamers is one of the big issues. The reality is that nobody knows who is watching what nor what each platform constitutes as 'watching'. Each streamers probably measures things differently, but none of them release any data other than "this new show broke x record".

A friend of mine from Drama Club in HS is an Actor* on strike, so I really should be paying more attention to that




* one Halloween, he posted a collage of himself as each of the members of The Village People (policeman, construction worker, biker, Indian, cowboy, sailor) with corresponding TV credit

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

The truth is I'd be shocked if any of them have a hard and fast 'watched' vs 'not watched' It's more likely this thumbnail gets viewers to watch this far and this autoplay makes it go this far. A lot of this is secretive like Lagoon said. If you're truly curious maybe look into youtube thumbnail and watch analytics. It's similar but not exact, I do know there's a lot of data out there about what make a good thumbnail, how watch percentages of videos contribute to your video being populated etc... I'd imagine there's a lot of crossover to how Netflix and the other services select how they feed you content. Much of this is likely algorithm fed data as well and so it may not even be known by humans.

For an interesting experiment, not time you're on Netflix, create a new user profile and go to it, then browse around a bit. I've found that the main feed of my real user profile is so stuffed with content it knows I would like I'm missing out on a ton of other stuff. I specifically have a profile I use for browsing as a way to avoid the algorithm fed stuff, but even that feeds into an algorithm with metrics like how long I lingered on a particular show before switching off so it isn't even foolproof.

Fin Man's fins are nailed to the wall at the IM Warehouse! Classic triathlon story!

I wasn't aware of that. That's hilarious!!!

He could have used a shorter fin to make it easier to hide them and then glued up a pocket on the wetsuit to hold them when he was going for the second lap.

Or he could have just ditched them after the first loop, if someone said something he could then DARVO

I think its a hard pass on the netflix movie. How in the world did this flick even get made? Did no one do any due diligence research to see that this woman is not a great swimmer but is instead just a pathological liar??


This Nyad Doc came up over Family Thanksgiving (Canada) Dinner recently intro'd by members of the family who don't really follow Endurance Sports. The impact that this type of content has on people who are unknowing can be extraordinary. These folks have no back ground, perspective or context - so they are likely to believe what they see hear!

It always amazes me how some people can lie and make stuff up particularly when they are selling themselves, and in this day and age when, one check up on Google, and you can see it all.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I dunno about that --- There are plenty of things that I've done in my life that don't sound like they could've really happened, although I know they did [being in the band Cinderella for a day; meeting Keith Richards & Madonna backstage at LiveAid; almost being murdered - twice; plenty of others]

Some stories I've told here and there cannot be fully confirmed, as the principles - besides me - have no online presence that I've been able to track down, to reach out and ask "Help me out. It went like this, right?" (Look how long it took to confirm me encounter with Bart Yasso, when he told me, and the small crowd around us "All Runners are Liars")

So, I've gotten in the habit of saying "Allegedly" a lot

The fact that I come from a family of bullshitters* doesn't help my credibility at all

"You don't believe me? That's fine; I've told the story(s) enough times that *I* don't believe me either" LOL

But then - to your point - I'm not trying to sell or promote myself as anything that I'm not, either




* On my mom's side, anyway. My dad's side weren't storytellers, by any means - we don't even know for sure how they got here from Norway; we fully suspect that they came over illegally

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Generally, l agree. But, unlike personal anecdotes, many big and small sporting events and accomplishments tend to leave a paper trail (pre internet) and now leave a digital trail. So, her endless lies are all pretty well documented right here:

http://www.nyadfactcheck.com/

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I find it interesting that lying and cheating in sports is looked down on so much, but no one has a problem with lying and cheating by elected officials which is far more detrimental to society. Lying about corruption, bribery, war, crime, taxes…. Good. Lying about your swimming…. Worst thing ever.

Maybe I’m an outlier but I find lying in all ways to be despicable. It should be discussed and better based on actual consequences though.

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You will remain the same person, before, during and after the race. So the result, no matter how important, will not define you. The journey is what matters. ~ Chrissie W.

Come on in to the Lavender Room, bruh! We rend our clothes and clutch our pearls daily over such things. This is the forum for sports, and it should stay that way.

That’s kinda the point. Lying and cheating here is the worst thing ever. Lying and cheating as long as it supports your team is fine over there. Since I despise all liars and cheaters, I don’t have a home there either.

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You will remain the same person, before, during and after the race. So the result, no matter how important, will not define you. The journey is what matters. ~ Chrissie W.

I think we've seen that people who cut courses or fudge their marathon times also misbehave in other aspects of life - cheating in marathons being the more visible; cheating on the spouse, or even something as serious as embezzlement or defrauding insurance companies* being a little harder to dig up or prove

Cheating in marathons is not the disease, but the symptom; and it does speak to a person's overall integrity - or lack, thereof



* not that l know of any for certain, but I vaguely recall Kip Litton (a dentist) submitting fake invoices to medical insurance companies? I could have that completely wrong, of course

Mike Rossi was a piece of work in his own right: multiple run-ins with police, creating dozens of puppets/fake accounts on Letsrun to defend himself & troll others ... those were fun times, I must say

The list goes on, I'm sure

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

About the bolded: Nope.

Sure, lots of nutters support cheaters at any cost, especially if the liar is in their tribe.

But some folks (and I think a good no. in the LR too) are rational and don't follow "a team". They despise liars and cheaters, irrelevant of which "team" the cheater is on.



But, you are right, not every single human being on earth is rational.

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It's bad that she lies. But the nature of some of the lies she has told are beyond the pale.

I can't imagine wanting to be associated with her in any way.

At least Hulk Hogan's hundreds of bullshit stories are funny, at least



Brian (reading from a link): Hulk Hogan claims that he used to be 6'9" but now, because of back and knee surgeries, he's only 6'4"

Cornette: Oh for fuck's sake

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Wow, how disappointing. I purchased her hardcover book years ago. She's basically the George Santos of the marathon swimming world.

When we moved a few years ago I got rid of a ton of books (donated to the local library). I donated Nyad's book as I didn't finish it and for some reason back then it got a bit tedious for me and I just stopped reading it. I kept Lynne Cox's book Swimming to Antarctica and it's sitting on my bookshelf as I type this. Not throwing stones at Nyad's book but I think I just lost my attention span. I loved reading Lynne's book.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Also it's....professional wrestling. :)

Fantasy is *the point*!

Yeah, there's always some wrestling angle

"Priscilla told me that Elvis was a huge fan of mine"
Elvis died in Memphis August 16, 1977; Hulk's first pro match was a house show in Tampa on August 10

"I partied with John Belushi after Wrestlemania 2"
That would've been 1986; Belushi died in '82

"I wrestled 400 days one year"
I guess if you cross the International Date Line enough times - and never come back - the days add up?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Exactly, this.
Who in their right mind would make a movie about her?


Well, I guess, unless it is a comedy!

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