Madeline Jane "Maya" DiRado - Andrews (born April 5, 1993) is a retired American competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who specialized in

freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott La ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of swimme ...

, and

individual medley Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle—into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay. Individual ...

events.Maya DiRado
– National Team swimmer profile at USASwimming.org She attended and swam for Stanford University, where she won

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

titles in the 200 and 400 meter individual medley in 2014 and graduated with a degree in

management science Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

and engineering. At the 2016 US Olympic Trials, DiRado qualified to swim the 200 meter and 400 meter individual medley events, as well as the 200 meter backstroke, at the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, she won a gold medal in the women's 4x200 meter freestyle relay, a silver medal in the 400 meter individual medley, a bronze medal in the women's 200 meter individual medley, and a gold medal in the 200 meter backstroke. Following the Olympics, DiRado retired from the sport.

Early years

DiRado is the daughter of Marit (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Parker) and Ruben DiRado. Her father is from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

, his parents having emigrated from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

to Argentina after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. She received her short name Maya from her sister who could not pronounce Madeline. DiRado began swimming at the age of six, when she joined the Santa Rosa Neptunes with her Olympic Teammate Molly Hannis.Maya DiRado Bio
SwimSwam (April 5, 1993). Retrieved on 2017-04-18. At the age of 17, DiRado graduated from

Maria Carrillo High School Maria Carrillo High School is a public high school in Santa Rosa, California, United States. It is managed by the Santa Rosa City Schools district. It opened in 1996 and is in Santa Rosa's Rincon Valley neighborhood. History Maria Carrillo Hig ...

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city *Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca *Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca *Santa Rosa, La Pampa *Santa ...

, where she was a three-time high school state champion in the 200 yard IM. In her senior year in 2010, she set the California state record with a time of 1:56.17 in the 200 yard I.M. She also won the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 49.83.

College career

As part of a long line of Stanford graduates, DiRado followed in her family's footsteps and attended Stanford University. In her freshman year, she finished second in the 200 yard IM (individual medley) with a time of 1:54.66Maya DiRado - 2012-13 Women's Swimming & Diving Roster - GoStanford.com , Stanford Athletics
GoStanford.com. Retrieved on April 18, 2017. and third in the 400 yard IM (4:01.02) at the Division 1 NCAA Championships. The following year, she finished third and fourth in the 200 yard and 400 yard IM events, as well as second in the 200 yard backstroke to future Olympic teammate Elizabeth Beisel, with a time of 1:51.42. She set the age group record for female swimmers age 17–18 as she became the fifth woman ever to swim under four minutes in the 400 IM (3:59.88). In the 2013 NCAA Division 1 Championships, DiRado touched third and second in the 200 and 400 yard IM and fifth in 200 yard backstroke. She concluded her Stanford career with her first individual titles in both the 200 and 400 yard IM, and added a second-place finish in the 200 yard butterfly. For her performance in her senior year, she was named

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

Swimmer of the Year. Career list of All-American Titles: 200 back: 2011 (5th), 2012 (2nd); 200 IM: 2011 (2nd), 2012 (3rd); 400 IM: 2011 (3rd), 2012 (4th); 400 Free Relay: 2011 (5th); 800 Free Relay: 2011 (9th), 2012 (7th).

Swimming career

2012 Olympic Trials

At the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, the U.S. qualifying meet for the Olympics, DiRado swam the 200 meter IM, 400 meter IM, and 200 meter back. She finished 4th in both IM events, which did not qualify her for the Olympics since only the top two finishers of each event qualified.

2013 World Championships

DiRado qualified for the

2013 World Aquatics Championships The 15th FINA World Championships ( ca, Campionat Mundial de Natació de 2013, es, Campeonato Mundial de Natación de 2013) were held from 20 July to 4 August in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

in three events: 400 meter IM, 200 meter butterfly, and the 4x200 meter freestyle relay. She earned her spot by winning the 400 meter IM, gaining silver in the 200 meter butterfly, and touching fifth in the 200 meter freestyle at the 2013 Phillips 66 National Championships. She swam the preliminary heat of the 4x200 meter freestyle relay with

Chelsea Chenault Chelsea Chenault (born October 19, 1994) is an American swimmer who specializes in middle-distance freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, ...

Karlee Bispo Karlee Delane Bispo (born January 14, 1990) is an American competition swimmer who specializes in middle-distance freestyle events. At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Bispo won a gold medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle rela ...

, and

Jordan Mattern Jordan Mattern (born February 1, 1993) is an American swimmer who specializes in middle-distance freestyle events. At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Mattern won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the wome ...

. The finals team of

Katie Ledecky Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky (born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. She has won seven Olympic gold medals and 19 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. Ledecky's six individual gold medals at ...

Shannon Vreeland Shannon Vreeland (born November 15, 1991) is an American former competition swimmer specializing in freestyle and Olympic gold medallist. She was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic team, and won a gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyl ...

, and

Missy Franklin Melissa Franklin Johnson (born May 10, 1995) is an American former competition swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist. She formerly held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke ( long course). As a member of the U.S. national swim tea ...

won the 4x200 meter freestyle relay in the evening, so DiRado was awarded a gold medal for her prelim contributions. She also finished fourth in the 400 meter IM and twelfth in the 200 meter fly.

2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

DiRado won two medals at the

Pan Pacific Swimming Championships The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships is a long course swimming event first held in 1985.200 meter IM and a silver in the 400 meter IM. In the 200 meter IM, she beat Australian swimmer

Alicia Coutts Alicia Jayne Coutts, (born 14 September 1987) is an Australian competitive medley, butterfly and freestyle swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (New Delhi). She ...

2:09.93 to 2:10.25 for gold, which tied the meet record

Emily Seebohm Emily Jane Seebohm, OAM (born 5 June 1992) is an Australian swimmer and television personality. She has appeared at four Olympic Games between 2008 and 2021; and won three Olympic gold medals, five world championship gold medals and seven Common ...

set in 2010. She finished second in the 400 meter IM in 4:35.37, compared to 4:31.99 swam by her teammate and winner

Elizabeth Beisel Elizabeth Lyon Beisel (born August 18, 1992) is an American competition swimmer who specializes in backstroke and individual medley events. Beisel placed second in the 400m individual medley at the 2016 US Olympic Swimming Trials, qualifying ...

. DiRado also finished ninth in the 200 meter butterfly.

2015 World Championships

DiRado swam two events at the 2015 World Championships, the two individual medleys. In her first event, the 200 meter IM, DiRado just finished outside of a medal, touching fourth with a time of 2:08.99. However, she won her first individual World Championship medal in the 400 meter IM, in which she finished second in 4:31.71 behind

Katinka Hosszú Katinka Hosszú (; born 3 May 1989) is a Hungarian competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is owner of a Budapest based swim school and swi ...

2016 Summer Olympics

At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials, the U.S. qualifying meet for the Rio Olympics, DiRado qualified for the U.S. Olympic team for the first time by winning the 200-meter individual medley, 400-meter individual medley, and 200-meter backstroke. At the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, DiRado won four medals – two gold, one silver, and one bronze. On the first night of competition, DiRado touched second in the 400-meter individual medley in 4:31.15 behind

, who broke the world record. She also won a bronze medal in the 200-meter individual medley in a personal best time of 2:08.79, behind Hosszú and

Siobhan-Marie O'Connor Siobhan-Marie O'Connor (born 29 November 1995) is a former English competitive swimmer who has represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games, the FINA World Aquatics Championships and the LEN European Aquatics Championships, and England at the ...

who won gold and silver respectively. Even though she did not swim the 200-meter freestyle at Trials, DiRado was placed in the finals relay lineup for the 4×200-meter freestyle relay by the coaches. Along with

Allison Schmitt Allison Rodgers Schmitt (born June 7, 1990) is an American competition swimmer who specializes in freestyle events. She is a four-time Olympian and a ten-time Olympic medalist. In her Olympic debut at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Schmi ...

, Leah Smith, and

, DiRado won her first gold medal of the Olympics. In her final event, the 200-meter backstroke, DiRado again faced Hosszú, who was favored to win the event. Hosszú led for the entire race until DiRado surged in the last 25 meters and out touched Hosszú by 6 one-hundredths, 2:05.99 to 2:06.05, for the win. Maya DiRado 2016

2016–2021: Retirement and redirection

DiRado retired from the competitive swimming side of the sport following her performances in August 2016 at her Olympic debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics.Watkins, Mike (October 26, 2018)
"Maya DiRado Is Staying Involved with the Sport She Loves"
''

USA Swimming USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overa ...

''. Retrieved July 21, 2021. She decided to stay active in the swimming community after her retirement by serving as a board member for the United States Swimming Foundation and

. In 2020, DiRado spoke to the leadership council at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

about what it means to be a good team player and leader in swimming through actions such as honoring one's values.Leadership U (September 11, 2020)
"Leadership Council Hears from Maya DiRado Andrews"
'' University of Minnesota Athletics''. Retrieved July 21, 2021. She was still retired from competitive swimming as of August 2021.

Personal life

DiRado married former

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

swimmer Rob Andrews on September 19, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

. The two met while they were both on the Stanford swim team. In August 2021, DiRado announced she and her husband were pregnant and expecting a boy.Miller, Nicole (August 3, 2021)
"Olympic Gold Medalist Maya DiRado Announces Pregnancy"
''

SwimSwam ''SwimSwam'' news is a swimming news organization covering competitive swimming along with diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. SwimSwam launched as a website in March 2012 and quickly became the most-read swimming website in the world. ...

''. Retrieved January 4, 2022.Rieder, David (August 3, 2021)
"2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Maya DiRado Announces Pregnancy; Baby Boy Due in January"
''

Swimming World ''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...

''. Retrieved January 4, 2022. An article on the announcement published by ''

'' was the 19th most read article out of all articles published on ''SwimSwam'' for the 2021 year.Miller, Nicole (January 1, 2022)
"Check Out SwimSwam's Most-Read Articles Of 2021"
''

''. Retrieved January 4, 2022. In January 2022, DiRado announced the birth of her and her husband's son, whom they named Charlie Alan Andrews.Oleksiak, Chris (January 27, 2022)
"Olympic Gold Medalist Maya DiRado Andrews Gives Birth To Baby Boy"
''

''. Retrieved January 27, 2022. In March 2017, she joined the

management consulting Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

as a Business Analyst. While at McKinsey & Company, DiRado supported strategic

health care provider A health care provider is an individual health professional or a health facility organization licensed to provide health care diagnosis and treatment services including medication, surgery and medical devices. Health care providers often recei ...

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or ser ...

improvements and implemented risk identification programs in the

banking industry {{set category, first=industries Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machin ...

. As of May 2018, she was an Associate at the

grantmaking A grant is a fund given by an end entity grant – often a public body, charitable foundation, or a specialised grant-making institution – to an individual or another entity (usually, a non-profit organisation, sometimes a business or a local ...

organization King Philanthropies. DiRado graduated from Stanford with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

Management Science Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Personal best times

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:DiRado, Maya 1993 births Living people American female butterfly swimmers American female freestyle swimmers American female medley swimmers American people of Argentine descent American sportspeople of Italian descent McKinsey & Company people Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming Swimmers from San Francisco Stanford Cardinal women's swimmers Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Universiade medalists in swimming Universiade gold medalists for the United States