María Jesús Maldonado Maira (born 13 August 1997) is a Chilean

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player. She plays for Spanish club .

Career

Club hockey

In August 2024, Maldonado moved to Spain to play for .

National team

Maldonado made her international debut for the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

senior team in 2017 at a test series in

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South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Maldonado made her junior debut at the 2016 Pan-Am Junior Championship, where the team won a bronze medal. From this tournament, the team qualified for the 2016 Junior World Cup where Maldonado also represented Chile. Maldonado was part of the

team at the 2017 Pan American Cup. At the tournament, the team recorded a historic 4–3 victory over the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. At the

2018 South American Games The 2018 South American Games was a multi-sport event that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was the 11th edition of the ODESUR South American Games. A total of 373 sporting events are scheduled to be contested across a variety of sports. ...

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, Maldonado represented Chile in the women's hockey tournament where the team won a bronze medal.

Personal life

Her brother,

José José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, also plays hockey and is a member of the Chilean men's national team.

References

1997 births Living people Chilean female field hockey players South American Games bronze medalists for Chile South American Games medalists in field hockey Competitors at the 2018 South American Games Field hockey players at the 2019 Pan American Games Field hockey players at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Place of birth missing (living people) Pan American Games bronze medalists for Chile Pan American Games field hockey players for Chile Pan American Games bronze medalists in field hockey Chilean expatriate field hockey players Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Spain 21st-century Chilean sportswomen {{Chile-fieldhockey-bio-stub