Benefield: Maya DiRado seeking one more shot at Olympic swimming glory

If this is indeed Maya DiRado’s swan song, she picked a pretty good time for her final flight.

DiRado, a graduate of Maria Carrillo High School in 2010 who went on to become a two-time NCAA champion swimmer for Stanford University, has vowed that the push for the Olympic Games in Rio is her final chapter in competitive swimming.

And the 23-year-old has put herself in outstanding position to write her finale any way she wants.

Heading into the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska that run today through July 3, DiRado is ranked No. 1 in the 200-meter individual medley, No. 1 in the 400-meter medley, No. 2 in the 200-meter backstroke and could be a contender for the 800-meter freestyle relay squad.

If DiRado swims according to the strength she has shown in the lead-up to these qualifying races, she could very well become a household name by mid-August.

“She could have a monster next 10 days. Life changing,” said Dan Greaves, the head coach of the Santa Rosa Neptunes, the club with which DiRado swam from her early days until she left for Stanford.

In addition to the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys and the 200-meter backstroke, she has also qualified for the 200-meter butterfly (3rd) and the 200-meter freestyle (8th).

DiRado has been here before.

Her first trials were in 2008 as a high schooler, but after her freshman year at Stanford, she missed making the 2012 team by two spots in two different events. She finished fourth in the 200- and 400-meter medleys.

But both Greaves and DiRado’s dad, Ruben, said those finishes weren’t necessarily a bad thing.

“It was more like, ‘Huh,’” Ruben DiRado, who now lives in South San Jose, said. “I think she didn’t have expectations coming in. I think she thought she’d be close. But it was after her freshman year of college; that took a lot out of her.

“No tears, nothing like that,” he said. “But she looked at the results: ‘Maybe my expectations should have been higher.’”

By all accounts, Maya DiRado is dialed in this time.

“I think she did a lot of soul searching about a year ago,” Greaves said.

And that search led to this - a resume of world-beating times and a five-time opportunity to book a trip to the Olympics.

DiRado swam for the U.S. in the 2013 World Championships, earned a gold in the 200-meter medley and a silver in the 400-meter medley at the Pan-Pacifics a year later, and returned to the U.S. world championship squad last year when she earned a silver medal in the 400 meter individual medley.

The time she posted? Four minutes, 31 seconds - the second fastest since Elizabeth Beisel in the 2012 Olympics.

“I think she swims the events that are hard for people to do,” Greaves said. “A lot of people, as they get older, choose not to do those longer ones. She has kind of stayed the course and gotten herself into the position where she is going to take advantage of it.”

And perhaps, incorporating all four strokes appeals to her intelligence - the maximum number of puzzle pieces to solve.

“I think she has always enjoyed the process. I think she enjoys trying to work through problems,” Greaves said. “She is smart, so if you can appeal to her intelligence, ‘Here is what you are doing and here is what we want you to do...’ She then becomes a student of what to do and she doesn’t forget.”

And while the life of a professional athlete allows for the full dedication that has produced sparkling times, it’s also proven to DiRado that this push for Rio is her final hurrah.

She’s newly married to fellow Stanford swimmer Rob Andrews, has her degree in Management Science and Engineering and has a job as an analyst lined up at McKinsey & Company come fall.

Life awaits.

“I think retirement is the wrong word,” her dad said. “It’s like moving on to something else. She thinks about it largely the same way.”

“It’s been a big part of her life but it’s also confined her to certain things and not other things,” he said. “She’s eager to do other things.”

I asked if there was any doubt about that decision - if it is hard for DiRado to see his daughter walk away at the peak of her abilities - and he did not pause.

“This is a very natural ending point,” he said. “Even in theory, she may be at her peak, so what is the end game? What is the point of continuing at this point? Whatever she has, she’ll max out and whatever that results in, she’ll be pretty happy about that.”

“In a lot of respects, all she has ever really wanted from the sport, she has gotten from it. And after this summer, there won’t be anything else,” he said.

But there might be a few more accolades along the way.

There might be hardware. There might be top-of-the-world moments on the sport’s largest stage. And there might be a fitting end to an extraordinary swimming career.

What exactly constitutes a fitting ending remains unclear, but it sounds like DiRado simply wants to exit the pool satisfied. Satisfied with a race well executed, satisfied with a maximum effort.

“She is looking forward to seeing what she can do when she maxes out,” Ruben DiRado said.

Aren’t we all.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes“Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”