A 23-year-old Waterford native is representing Italy at the Olympic Games in France.
Maggie Pescetto was born in Waterford but grew up in Italy and is flying the Italian flag in the sport of kiteboarding which is making its Olympic debut at the 2024 Games.
Maggie's parents are Sean Pescetto and Aisling Queally. Aisling is daughter of Eileen Queally and the late Peter Queally of Kill, County Waterford.
Well-known businessman Peter, who died in August last year, set up Dawn Meats with his brother John and their business partner Dan Browne in 1980. It grew to become one of Europe’s largest privately-owned agri companies. The brothers were honoured with the accolade of Ambassador of the Year at the Waterford Business Awards in February 2020.
Maggie began kitesurfing at the age of 13 and traces her love of the water back to her family's visits to the Copper Coast during her formative years.
"Aisling, my sister, would come home to Ireland every summer during the early 2000s," Maggie's proud uncle Cathal told WLR.
"She would stay at my mother's cottage in Bunmahon and that is where Maggie first learned how to swim."
Cathal explained that Maggie is actually named after the family's much loved former housekeeper at Gardenmorris, the late Maggie Power.
"Maggie Power worked in Gardenmorris all her life for the previous owners, the Poer-O'Shee family, and was the only person that my father kept on when he bought Gardenmorris," Cathal explains.
"Maggie was more than a house keeper, she was a dear family friend and helped my mother raise all eight children. Maggie was the first granddaughter born and naming her after Maggie Power was Aisling's way of acknowledging and paying homage to the love we all had for Maggie Power. Maggie P passed away several years ago at the age of 94. She spent her whole life in Kill and was very well known. The entire Queally family is thinking not only of Dad this month, but also of the legacy of Maggie Power and how proud we are of Maggie Pescetto to remind us that not only does life continue but that there is also a lot to look forward to as well. "
Although the Games are being held in Paris, the kiteboarding programme is actually being staged on the Mediterranean coast at Marseille.
Maggie's qualifying rounds take place early next week, on August 4th and 5th and, if she makes it to the final, she will be in action on Thursday August 8th.
Read more about Maggie's sporting background here
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