Julia Louis-Dreyfus
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
She became one of the greatest long-distance swimmers in the world, breaking records, becoming a regular on Johnny Carson.
She looked so comfortable on that stage.
And then, at the very peak of her fame, she walked away.
Not another stroke for 30 years.
And here's where it gets wild.
She came back.
In her 60s, at an age when the world tells women to quiet down, slow down, and shut the hell up, she did something she couldn't do at 29.
At 64, after four failed attempts, after box jellyfish stings and the Gulf Stream's brutal cross currents and the disorientation that hits around hour 40โ
She came back out of retirement and swam from Cuba to Florida.
She did it.
No shark cage, just a rebuilt body, an elite support team, and her brain.
Her story was made into the 2023 feature film Nyad, which you have to watch if you haven't yet.
I'm sure you have.
The movie stars Annette Bening as Diana and Jodie Foster as her coach and close friend Bonnie Stahl.
Over the years, she's been recognized again and again from the ESPN Sports Science Newton Award to her induction into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame and the U.S.
National Women's Sports Hall of Fame.
Today, she leads EverWalk, a movement about connection, energy, and the everyday vitality that actually sustains a long life.
She's a loyal friend, a devoted dog mama, and the kind of person who knows that to pace herself while she swims,
In her head, she needs to sing Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me, Babe 2,000 times, and it equals exactly 4 hours and 45 minutes in the water.
A woman who is truly wiser than me, Diana Nyad.