By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
PARSONS – Tucker County residents Kate Parker and Mary Katharine Salovaara have taken a special interest in the Olympics this year – Kate Parker’s niece Maya DiRado was part of the Olympic Women’s Swim Team, and she scored big this year in Rio. Parker said Maya, the youngest daughter of her little sister, earned a gold, silver and bronze medal in three individual events as well as a gold medal for a relay event.
“Maya had an amazing Olympic experience,” Parker said.
Madeline, nicknamed Maya because her older sister could not pronounce her name when she came home from the hospital, is the daughter of Marit DiRado and Ruben DiRado of Santa Rosa, California. She is a 2014 graduate of Stanford and is married to Rob Andrews.
Maya was originally scheduled for three events in this year’s Olympics and was added as a team member in a fourth event, the women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay in place of another swimmer. Maya was the third swimmer in the relay and the team took the gold medal.
She is also the recipient of three more medals for swimming – the women’s 200 meter individual back stroke, where she took a gold medal; the women’s 400 meter individual medley, where she took a silver medal; and the women’s 200 meter individual medley, where she won a bronze medal.
Parker said the competitions were very exciting and said Maya was not expected to win the woman’s 200 meter back stroke competition.
“She was up against Katrika Hosszu who was expected to win,” Parker said. “Maya beat her by 5/100s of a second to take the gold.”
Maya will be retiring following the Rio Olympics and Parker said Maya and her husband will be traveling for two weeks. Following that, the couple will be moving to Atlanta where Maya has a job beginning in September.
The family gathered in front of the television for the Olympics – Parker said her Aunt Mary Katharine Salovaara, one of Aunt K’s daughters and son Pieter Brower came to town for the weekend to watch Maya’s performance.
“On Friday night, we watched Maya swim,” Parker said. “I work at East West Printing and I asked my little sister if I could design as shirt. There are about 210 shirts from all around the world that say, ‘Go, Maya, Go’ on them. We all wore our shirts and sat in front of the television cheering her on. It was a very exciting time.”
Parker said she wanted to thank everyone for cheering Maya to victory.
“The Tucker County Community has been incredibly supportive,” Parker said. “It has been fun. It allowed me to talk about how great my niece has been doing and allowed me to look forward to this year’s Olympics and seeing her swim.”
Parker said she would extend that sentiment nationwide and worldwide.
“There are so many people out there that have been rooting for Maya. It’s really cool. Everybody should have a fan club.”
