Maya DiRado upsets Katinka Hosszu for 200m backstroke gold

But it was time to move on.

That all changes next month when DiRado reports to Atlanta for her new job as a business analyst with McKinsey & Company, a high-powered management consulting firm that once employed Chelsea Clinton.

And oh, what a year it’s been.

The defending U.S. Olympic Games gold medalist swimmer lost in her 200-meter backstroke semifinal on Thursday, providing a disappointing and sad end for one of the 2016 Olympic Games’ strongest favorites in that category.

Besides a complete set of gold, silver and bronze, DiRado is taking gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay back home. And yet, here was Hosszu in the call room, agitated, pumping arms, shaking legs while DiRado sat still, keeping her powered dry for a race in which she would knock spots off her best in the last shot of her career to claim that sacred status: Olympic champion.

American Missy Franklin, who set the world record (2:04.06) at the 2012 London Games, failed to make finals of the event after adding almost five seconds to her best time in Thursday’s semi-finals. But the fact that it’s her final meet has not yet hit her. DiRado said. “How much weight can I gain per day eating croissants?” DiRado’s mother Marit is an oncology nurse who volunteered to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and also went to Africa to help the Ebola virus patients. She and husband, Rob Andrews, are leaving Rio before the Games are finished to vacation in Paris.

Or perhaps, given her official lap time, Missy Franklin was carrying all of the stones in Rio in her pocket.

Has anyone asked her to reconsider her future?

After the race, DiRado spoke about her joy of victory: DiRado said, “This whole day has been kind of insane because it’s all of these little last things that I’ve gotten to do, like my last warmup with the girls at the training pool today.I wrote my parents an email this morning just saying thank you, and I started bawling on my bed, and then my roommates came in and comforted me”. “But no, this is the flawless way to go out”.

United States’ Maya Dirado celebrates after winning gold in the women’s 200-meter backstroke final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has contributed to TeamUSA.org since its inception in 2008.