The video of the woman who swam from Cuba to the US shows a professional athlete, not a refugee

What they share: A 64-year-old woman swam in the high seas to escape from Cuba to the United States, risking being attacked by sharks. Upon arrival, no one could touch her until she set foot on North American soil due to immigration laws.

Estado concluded by checking: is misleading. The video shows American long-distance swimmer Diana Neat completing the challenge of crossing the Florida Straits, a region that separates Cuba and the United States, by swimming and without the aid of a shark cage. He became the world record holder and the first person to complete the journey, in 2013, at the age of 64. When the challenge came, people weren’t allowed to touch her so that Nyad could break the swimming record without any help.

Learn more: A video that has gone viral on social media uses images of athlete Diana Neat to claim that a 64-year-old woman swam 174km in 54 hours to escape Cuba and reach the United States. According to the publication, she was “found” on the high seas and because of immigration laws no one could touch her until she set foot on North American soil. However, the long-distance swimmer never left Cuba.

Neat is American, born in New York. In 2013, he set a world record for being the first person to swim across the Florida Straits between Cuba and the United States without the aid of a shark cage. In the challenge, the then 64-year-old athlete, after leaving Havana, covered a distance of 177 km and took 53 hours to reach Florida’s Key West coast.

A misleading publication misstates the athlete’s name and track information. From a backup search of video footage on Google (see how to do it here ), I was able to find reports that replicated the event (Here This is Here) and logs in the Naiad Canal showing the route (Here This is Here)

Original images published Florida Keys TV Channel In 2013. As you can see these are the same cuts used in the viral post.

Diana Neat attempted to complete the first route in 1978. In a final attempt, in 2012, the athlete gave up after spending two days at sea and being burned by jellyfish. It was swimming that gave her the world record Planned by a committee of 35 expertsSuch as technicians, doctors, nutritionists, meteorologists and divers.

The post went viral on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. Readers requested verification of this content via WhatsApp from Estadão Verifica, 11 97683-7490.

How to handle posts like this: In this case, a quick internet search using the athlete’s name can reveal the actual information about what happened. Often, misinformation takes images and facts out of their original context to give them new meanings.