Maritza Correia

Maritza Correia's story stops me in my tracks. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she became the first Puerto Rican of African descent on a U.S. Olympic swimming team when she qualified in 2004. That's not merely a story about being fast; it's about being the first to walk a path nobody had walked before. Forged at the University of Georgia and now known by her married name Maritza McClendon, she also has an Instagram account. What moves me isn't the times she posted but the example she set, quietly telling the kids behind her that the door is open. I'm a sucker for trailblazers, and she's the real thing.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Maritza Correia

Name (Japanese)

マリッツァ・コレイア

Reading

まりっつぁ・これいあ

Born

December 23, 1981 (age 44)

Origin

San Juan, United States

Height

175 cm

Occupation

swimmer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Rooster

University

University of Georgia

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/maritzamcclendon04/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritza%20Correia
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%84%E3%82%A1%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6765923

Tags

• swimmer

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.