In an article with USA Swimming‘s Mike Watkins this week, Maya DiRado announced that she will retire from professional swimming after this summer no matter what happens in Omaha or Rio.
The 23 year-old is entering the U.S. Olympic Trials next week as a contender for the Olympic Team after earning her first individual World Championship medal in the 400 IM last season. The Stanford graduate recently married former Cardinal swimmer Rob Andrews, and says that she is ready for the next stages of her life, which do not include swimming.
“I will have a hard stop date after this summer; I will be moving to Atlanta to start as a business analyst for McKinsey, a management consulting firm,” she said. “No more training for me, so I’m really enjoying my last run through everything.
“I never wanted to make swimming my career, so the switch is going to be refreshing. I’ll get to work my brain out a little more.”
Although DiRado says she took a few weeks off after Worlds in 2015, she believes that she has had the most consistent and successful year of training in her swimming career, and says she is excited to see what the results will be in Omaha in a few weeks.
DiRado is a two-time NCAA champion and a US National champion in the 400 IM. She also was runner-up in the 100 and 200 fly at US Nationals in the years 2014 and 2013, respectively. She also earned a silver medal at Worlds in 2015 in her signature event, the 400 IM.
It goes to show you why I am a director at a university. I don’t this well.
2 months and 9 days later I am proven right about Maya dirado. Sven, die wilt, John, and everybody else. If Maya dirado had followed your advice she would be in a cubical with florescent lighting in hot Atlanta, if still on the job. Instead she is going to bring home medals for having won honor and glory for herself and the USA. I wonder how many millions she will be able to earn with her endorsement and speaking engagements? Better yet, how many other inspire honor seekers will she additional influence. Role model!
So, I am going to say this one last time. You would rather be making money for someone else and letting them control your life while you are on salary as opposed to making your own way, making your own money, being in control of your own life, and directing what you do? Having more control over what you do creates success in life.
These comments predicting where maya will be happier/ presticting her future salary are getting a bit ridiculous. None of us even know maya or what makes her happy. I think we should leave her career decisions up to her an people who are close to her.
Kudos to her! McKinsey is the premier consulting firm in the world (sorry Bain and BCG) and they’ll be lucky to have someone like Maya. She’s clearly not only a talented swimmer, but also a smart cookie. Best of luck to her at Trials and Rio, and in all of her future endeavors.
For those who are questioning how “legit” her decision was to not be a professional swimmer, the sky really can be the limit for people who work at McKinsey. McKinsey is in the same tier as Goldman, Apple, Google, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_and_former_McKinsey_%26_Company_consultants
I think she is making a very good decision. As far as professional sports go, baseball seems to be the only sensible avenue where careers can be long and average players make millions. Swimming is at the very bottom money wise.
And working at McKinsey doesn’t mean staying in a cubicle.
I don’t think its baseball maybe its soccer but is it only about money after all she just got married. I can hear that biological clock ticking.
Goldman Sachs there’s a good example of people I want to be like! do you have any other great examples of humans? How about Bernie Madoff? What about Michael Melkin? How about Ivan Boski? I bet that the families of all the burn victims which suffered from Warren Buffet’s exploding rail road want to be close to him too. Then there are all the people in the middle east and balkins who died because of George Soros destabilize their economies schools and government. Are these the people you want to be like and work for?
According to glassdoor.com a Business Analyst for McKinsey starting salary is $80,000 per year. That is about $4,000 every two weeks minus $150 for health and dental insurance, taxes, and subtract more money for what ever retirement plan and other benefits she selects; therefore, her salary is probably about $72,000 per year and maybe she get’s a signing bonus of probably $10k. In addition, she now has to worry about her performance evaluations from a supervisor that she has to report to immediately every day and 1-4 weekends off. Then she has to put in a leave card just to get time off. She would make way more money and less stress as a professional swimmer.
Only in the short term.
How could you wish more years of 400 IM on anyone? I wouldn’t for even my worst enemy.
Swim doc posed the question: how could you wish more years of 400 IM on anyone?
Answer: Training 2.5 morning, 2.5 evenings, 1-2 hour of weights, yoga, mental training, traveling for competition, modeling swimming suits, getting paid for swimming clinics, and endorsements for a 4:42 second race is way better than working 8-10 hours, stagnant in the same building, doing budget projections for a weekly meeting, going to boring conferences and trainings, getting passed up on promotion by the vice president nephew who just finished pudonk university with a degree in finance.
That’s not the business path of someone who goes to work for McKinsey. Two years of consulting work, then they pay for business school at a top institution, then you go back and work for McKinsey for a year, then you move right into a junior-level executive job at a Fortune 500 company by the age of 28. Her golden path is all laid out for her, and I assure it’s much more lucrative than professional swimming.
Did you read all that has been posted. 1. I suppose if she does not enjoy swimming more than anything she should just quit now instead of being a liability that’s in the way of others who care more about swimming and the success of the Olympic team than their own personal careers and money. Moreover, she just got married at some point she is going to want children, that is if she truly loves herself, husband, children, and greater humanity as a whole.
There is one more thing she says she’s going to be a business analysis. At very best her decision to quit, which is her strength, and work in a field in a city that both already are filled with an over abundance of snake oil salesman is questionable businesses decision.
It is sad to say this. However, when you leave swimming which is based on the pursuit of achievement and honor to enter the cooperate world to a company like McKinsey, often achievement and success by a lower level employee can be looked at as a threat by upper level employees who’s success is built on smooching and who they know. The question is how did she get job? And what are the factors they considered will those strengths become weakness, dangers, or threats? Olympians are a higher caliber person. Just for entertainment and maybe some caution she should watch the t.v show ‘ House of lies’ from first episode to last episode. That Don Chidale is a great actor.… Read more »
How about for Brock Turner??
Yes, and she moved to Georgia where housing is cheaper than the Bay Area in California. So, her salary has a higher value in Georgia.
I think you are way overestimating what a “professional swimmer” makes.
Have to disagree here. As has been stated, cost of living in Georgia is much better than the Bay Area where she is currently training. In addition, that 72k at 23 years old is the starting salary, and will likely go up over the course of a career. As a pro swimmer, I doubt she is making much more than that right now, if at all (I think the only ones making big bucks are Phelps, Lochte, Hosszu, etc.). Whatever that number is, it will decrease as her performance decreases with age. There’s quite a bit more long term upside in terms of financial security with this job.
As far as stress, I’d rate being a pro swimmer as… Read more »
Sven, your basically saying you rather be a happy employee in cooperate America making 72k per year rather than being a professional swimmer and entrepreneur? You rather report to work on time, make some cooperation rich, project deadlines, report deadlines, budget projections deadlines, PowerPoint presentation, and worry about performance evaluations?
Man, you remind of that old NIN song titled ‘Happiness in slavery’
Please Captain, do tell me more about your life of fulfillment and significance. Sounds like you’ve got it nailed.
gtfoh
Classy – just the sort of reaction I expected. I strongly suspect that DiRado at age 23 already has a better handle on how to manage the entirety of her life than you likely ever will. By all means, please prove me wrong. But isn’t it ironic that soon someone will be seeking her out to pay good money for her counsel, while you continue to dispense your unsolicited advice here for free?
Speak for yourself
I don’t need to explain my path to anyone. However, I choose to engage in conversation here as a matter of the pursuit of wisdom in a public forum, no different than Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, etc. Many of those who we most admire were blamed for the failures of the state and sentenced to death for philosophy. That seems to happen a lot in Europe and I think is the reason for the war of 1776. It was once said that while the American militia would not follow orders if the reason why the ought to do something was clear and agreed upon then they would do it with great efficiency. All of this aforementioned post presents ample reasons for… Read more »
All I’ve said is that there are two sides to every coin. While the lifestyle of a pro swimmer might be fun for a while, we have here an example of a smart young lady who has experienced it, and she seems to see more benefit on the other side, at least for her purposes in life (settling down with her hubby, it sounds like). As a pro, you are just as beholden to your sponsorship contracts as an office worker is to his company. You seem to be under the impression that there is some great freedom in being a professional swimmer, but it has the same price as any other job, with much less reward unless you are… Read more »
I am sorry that you have such low expectations they reflect your reductionist materialistic standards. Because that’s what you are a reductionist. We are talking about more than simply a lifestyle and more than simply money but substantial choices on a life well lived. What is a life well lived!! You detailed that it was just a choice between one corporate slavery over another and I am sorry your world views are so bleak. If your a millennial I’m sorry your education is so lack luster. Blame socialism or oligarchy. There are other ways to live better. Maybe it’s not simply a choice between what you say but greater possibilities exits if you can “think outside the box”. Recently, I… Read more »
Judging from your name. I am not sure where you are from? Is it somewhere in scandanivia or America? It seems to me that the Swedish social ecperiement which has filtered into other places simply represents lower expectations.
Go Maya! Stay with Hosszu on fly and back and then crush the race on breast and free to win the 400 IM gold in Rio!
Messr. Gigi, so you think Maya will win 400 IM gold in Rio? I admit, that’s a very bold prediction.
Who knows there are upsets. I saw Joe Sieban again on you tube beat Michael Gross in 1984.
There are _always_ upsets in every Olympics. Predicting an upset is also called making a bold prediction. And I believe messr. Gigi is making a bold prediction, which is, by the way, I have no problem with whatsoever. It’s all legit, and I love ’em! 🙂
John Seiben. From LuckyLane Six. Stuff the silver, we’ve come for the gold!
Ah yes Lawrence of Australia. One of the best books in swimming…
How do you think I feel? Mate we just beat 3 world record holders…
No way, Bobo.
Hosszu is only human after all! Go on Maya!
I wish her the best. But I worry that swimmers in her situation have myopic swimming goals that can get them to the Olympics and when they get there they do not perform as well. I believe I have seen this in the past. Usually it happens when a veteran makes the team not far ahead of an up-and-comer and performs badly at the Olympics. The up-and-comer would likely have done better at the Olympics while the veteran performs poorly compared to their trials times. I hope Maya can be strong at both the trials and the Olympics.