2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Day 7 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
Add one more upset to the tally for this week. Tonight, in a video that coaches everywhere will undoubtedly use to show age groupers the importance of nailing the finish, Maya DiRado touched out the Iron Lady, Katinka Hosszu, to take gold in the women’s 200 back.
Hosszu came in to Rio as one of the clear favorites in this event, and had already won the 100 back, 200 IM, and the 400 IM, the latter of which in world record time. She had the fastest time in the field in both the preliminaries and the semifinals in this event.
After Hosszu stormed out to an early lead, DiRado slowly began reeling her in. The last 25m appeared to show DiRado gaining a little on Hosszu, but Hosszu still appeared to have the lead going into the wall. It came down to the the final touch, and DiRado lunged while Hosszu took one more stroke. When the results appeared, DiRado had beaten Hosszu 2:05.99 to 2:06.05.
That time ranks DiRado as the 5th-fastest swimmer ever in this event, displacing Hosszu and her 2:06.03 that she swam in the semifinals. Here’s the all-time list:
2:04.06 – Missy Franklin, USA
2:04.81 – Kirsty Coventry, ZIM
2:04.94 – Anastasia Fesikova, RUS
2:05.81 – Emily Seebohm, AUS
2:05.99 – Maya DiRado, USA
2:06.03 – Katinka Hosszu, HUN
DiRado has promised that this is her first and last Olympics. If she holds true to that plan, then she will finish her Olympic career with one individual gold of each medal. She faced Hosszu in all three individual races, and DiRado took silver in the 400 IM and the bronze in the 200 IM. Additionally, she earned a gold medal in the 4×200 free relay after swimming a very solid splits in finals, despite not competing in the individual event at Olympic Trials.
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/judge-dismisses-hosszu-lawsuit-against-swimming-world-and-casey-barrett/
That was maybe the most shocking Olympic finish ever. Awesome
Didn’t Missy also swim a 2:04 in 2013?
5th fastest performer, not performance
What a day! Maya DiRado, Katie Ledecky, Anthony Ervin. Triple miracle in one night. Couldn’t even dream of such thing happening. Thank you guys very much. You are the most likeable members of this great team.
Amen
Maya D is a total class act and is fearless and knows how to finish a race!!°
The 4 swimmers above her on that list were all swimming the 200 back at the games and were all beaten by Maya. If she decides to stay in the sport, this is just the beginning for her.
So happy for May! I think she shoukd turn pro and continue to train to 2020 Olympics. She can defer the McKinsey job for the next 4 years. Or work here 2 years and then come back to compete.
I don’t know what kind of company would allow an employee to get hired and then not start working for years.
A company that values talented smart motivated employees.
I’d like to see Maya work at McKinsey for a few years, then come back, not to swim as an athlete, but to run USA Swimming.
If she does 2 years at McKinsey, then an MBA, which is a fairly standard trajectory for McKinsey, she could end up back at a university in time to train for another olympics.
What kind of company do you work for? Mine sure wouldn’t do that.
Change the title to “MAYA DIRADO UPSETS SHANE TUSUP, SWIMS 5TH-FASTEST 200 BACK EVER” 🙂
Sexist. Tusup is not the one in the water.