RIO DE JANEIRO — Maya DiRado, who has said she will retire from swimming win or lose after these Olympics and take a consulting job in Atlanta, won silver in the 400-meter individual medley. She was beaten only by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who set a world record for the event at 4:26.36.
“I knew Katinka was very far ahead, so I didn’t worry about her,” DiRado said. “I just tried to dig the last 50. I got silver and I’m thrilled with that,”
Hosszu finished nearly five seconds ahead of DiRado, who attends Stanford. Hosszu, a former Southern Cal swimmer, just missed the world record in the preliminaries but slowed down in the final 50 meters, perhaps saving some energy for the finals. She didn’t slow down this time, comfortably beating the previous record of 4:28.43 set in 2012 by Ye Shiwen, the Chinese swimmer who set the mark under suspicion of doping.
DiRado knew by the sound of the crowd what was happening 100 meters into the race, as the scoreboard showed Hosszu far ahead of the record time.
“It was so loud,” she said.
But that wasn’t a disappointment to DiRado, who swam her fastest career time in the event and made the most of her first — and last — Olympics.
“I never do this, but I kind of smiled on the box,” she said. “I was the girl who was videotaping these sessions.”
[Source:- USA Today]
