I made the poster based in Mariana Pajón, who is the athlete that I most admire because even though the BMX was seen as a rude and men sport, she got to be the champion even in men competences. She was born in Medellin, learned to ride a bicycle at the age of 3 and as soon as she reaches the allowed age of  5 she started to compete, when she got her first national title. She also won her first world title at 9. Whereas she rose in a family which all their members practiced a sport, she decided to be the best cyclist, although her mother wanted she would pick roller-skating or gymnastics as they are more feminine. 

She has won two gold medals in the Olympic Games of 2012 and 2016 and won the BMX World Championship.  Before the 2012 Olympics, Mariana injured two tendons in her left wrist, but she didn’t tell anybody. That demonstrates her determination to do whatever she wanted, even if that could hurt and it shows her exceptional professional capacity.

Every time she talks about the effort that she and her family had to do for her career, she feels sad because the people only see the medals but don’t think in all the work, privations, and efforts that they had to do, even without the government support. She thinks that can’t change unless there will have a change in the culture and bigger funding for her delegation.

This outstanding athlete has over 20 awards for her impeccable performance on the BMX tracks of Colombia and the world, including 13 global awards, 12 United States championships, 9 Latin American championships, 10 Pan-American awards, and 2 Bolivian, European, South American, Central American and Caribbean championships.

During the BMX World cup, she suffers a fell off, she injured a ligament and part of the left knee and had to stop for 6 months. Despite this she won a gold medal in the Panamerican Games.

Now she is preparing for the next Olympic games. She inspires a generation of aspiring sportswomen and she inspired me to have discipline and always follow my dreams.