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U.S. OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALSJuly 2, 2016Maya DiRadoOmaha, Nebraska THE MODERATOR: This week so far there have been three athletes who have won three individual events: Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and Maya DiRado. Maya won her third event this week in the Women's 200 Backstroke. Maya, talk about winning three events. MAYA DIRADO: It's kind of insane, and I still don't really believe it, but that was a fun one. The 400 IM was really stressful, but the 200 Back was really fun just to go out there and race, and to get my hand on the wall first was a treat and I enjoyed it. Q. What is it like to be in that company? MAYA DIRADO: It's pretty awesome. You know, I was in lane four, and they announced me, and then they announced Missy and they're like, "Missy Franklin, the world record holder in this event." And I was like, it's pretty awesome that I get to be up here racing her in front of this crowd, and so I enjoy it every time that I get to do that in an event that I really haven't done on an international level yet, so the more experience in that, the better. Q. What about being mentioned with Katie and Michael? MAYA DIRADO: That's nuts! That's insane. I will qualify that with they have world records in their events, and I'm ranked fourth or fifth in mine, so we can't get too far ahead of ourselves, but that's crazy! Q. You're obviously very good at process oriented tasks. What will be the process now? You're on this big high but there is obviously more work to do. MAYA DIRADO: Yeah, Greg was quick to remind me, you have a practice coming up tomorrow morning, and coming back up, getting back in shape, that will be painful, but it's a pain they'll gladly accept because this week was so great. Q. You had such a great week that maybe was unexpected for a lot of people that don't really know the sport, a lot of the fans, what were your expectations coming into this meet? What do you think you were capable of? Did you think you would win three? MAYA DIRADO: No, honestly making the team was the goal going into this. I wanted to have that backstroke. I think I've been at 2:08 for a long time, and I haven't had a good, rested 200 Backstroke, so that was really great. But at a meet like this, times do not matter; you just want to make the team, make your events. So to be able to win three events and get a best time was just additional excitement and happiness on top of that. Q. Was this your last race on US soil, and if so, was there any kind of sentimentality or nostalgia? MAYA DIRADO: Yes, it was my last race on US soil, and it hadn't even occurred to me that that was this moment until Beisel and I were about to get in the warm-up pool, and I capped her, and she was thanking me and I was like, dude, this is the last time we're going to wear these caps, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the last time I'm going to compete in a Stanford cap, so I kind of let that sink in for a second and then I had to push it aside and go back to my race. It was crazy! I'm glad that that's how it ended and that that's how I went out with an "S" on my cap. Q. Maya, obviously with how you've done here you're going to start getting more attention, probably more than you're used to from a national perspective, maybe more pressure. How do you handle that in the next month going forward? MAYA DIRADO: You know, I think just keeping things in perspective, focusing on the process again, going back into training, and I'll probably try to stay off social media as much as I can and just kind of focus on being with the team and doing the work that we need to do. But I think you can look at it as support and as a blessing, and listening to Michael up here just a second ago talking about how he's grown the sport, like, we owe so much of that to him, and the fact that I was able to compete as a professional swimmer for the past two years and make a really comfortable living without having even been to an Olympics is a testament to what Michael has done with the sport of swimming. We will gladly welcome the attention we get from the country and the support that we receive because we're excited that people care, and I think we have to look at it that way. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Maya. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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