Super Athletic Writer

Introductory Column

by Raquel Torres

Raquel Torres was born and raised in La Vega, a small town in the Dominican Republic.

As a kid, she was very active and a good swimmer, she liked riding her bike, also riding rollerblades, horses, motorcycles, judo, she did some triathlons in the 90’s as a teenager and because of her passion and a good national performance she represented the Dominican Republic at some international events, even with sporadic training and not the best equipment and support, she won as Pan-American Junior Champion in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1996, also Junior Pan-American Champion in Costa Rica in 1997, and won as Junior Female Champion at the Aruba International Triathlon in 1998.

At 16 years old she represented the Dominican Republic as elite at the first-time triathlon was included at the Central American Games, in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1998. When she was just 14 years old, her vocation of helping others was obvious, some parents started asking her to coach their kids, so during her free time she was at the pool deck coaching other kids.

She stopped competing at sports to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Business thanks to an athletic Scholarship at the renowned university PUCMM in Santiago, Dominican Republic. After graduation she spent 10 successful years in the financial industry, completed 2 masters degrees including an MBA with an international scholarship at WMU, Michigan, USA.

After all those years and having her daughter in her 30’s she tried again triathlon, at the beginning just as a hobby, she never planned to be a professional triathlete but once again because of her good performance and winning at Michigan State Championships, the Dominican Triathlon Federation asked her (consecutively 2013-2019) to race as Elite at the Olympic circuit, with the support of sponsors she was able to compete in around 50 International events in around 20 countries.

Here are some of her highlight’s athletic achievements:

• Dominican Elite Champion consecutively from 2013-2020 at all distances from sprint ITU to half and full Ironman.
• Top 25 in America ITU triathlon Ranking 2014-2015.
• Dominican Republic Athlete of the year 2014 by the Sports Minister.
• Only Dominican to qualified for the Central American Games, Veracruz, Mexico, 2014.
• Only Dominican to qualified for the Pan-American Games, Toronto 2015. By ITU International Ranking Points.
• Michigan State Consecutive Female Triathlon Champion from 2012-2018.
• Virginia State Female Olympic Triathlon Champion 2018.
• 8th Place Ironman finisher at Professional category and first Latina. Louisville, Kentucky, USA, 2018.
• Qualified by ranking points for ITU triathlon world series, Chicago, 2014 and Edmonton, Canada, 2014-2015.
• As a professional, she completed around 10 Ironman 70.3 and 2 Full Ironman.
• Finished top 3 Overall, first Latina, and 1st in her category at the SuperFrog Ironman 70.3, California, USA. 2019.
• Qualified for the Ironman 70.3 Worlds Championships, Sept. 2021.

During all those years besides training hard and racing, she never stopped learning and studding with a coachable and student heart attitude and helping others, volunteering, coaching all levels, from kids to adults, doing triathlon clinics, triathlon training camps for adults and kids, coaching swimming, running, and cycling, using her experience to help others with love and compassion.

Some of her coaching certifications:

• USAT Triathlon Coach Level 1 certification. (2015-2021)
• USAT Triathlon Youth Junior-Elite Coach Certification. (2017-2021)
• John Maxwell Life Coach Certification. (2020)
• Red Cross Lifeguard Certification. (2013-2021)
• Red Cross CPR and First AID Certification. (2012-2021)
• More than 15 years of successful experience, designing training plans, clinics, speeches, boot camps, and coaching swimmers, runners, and triathletes of all ages, backgrounds and levels from learning how to swim/run to Elite.

A triathlon is an endurance multi-sport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances like Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman, and Full Ironman. A Sprint Triathlon consists of 750 meters of open water swimming, 20 kilometers of cycling, and a 5k run. A Full Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim (4k), 112-mile bike (180 K), and a marathon 26.2-mile run (42.2K).

Raquel had some ups and downs in life, many good and some bad races, and personal tough life situations, with all these experiences she developed a very strong resilience virtue. She is dedicating her life as a full-time coach, training humans to reach their personal goals, helping them to have a healthier and happier life through developing discipline, organization, simplicity, and emotional intelligence. She also writes blogs for several magazines and her team Athletic Mentors. Now she is contributing as a columnist with CNY Latino Newspaper with the purpose of sharing true life stories with her experiences, also tips and tactics that helps anyone to be their best version, overcome life challenges with motivational topics like wellness, running, triathlon, swimming, nutrition, personal finances, mental toughness, meditation, endurance, mind-body connection and many other related topics for self-improvement.

Contact

• raqueltorres.org
• Instagram: @raqueltorres777
• Twitter: @raqueltorrres777
• Email: raquel@athleticmentors.com
• Facebook: @raqueltorres77777
• FB pro: https://www.facebook.com/raqueltorrestri