Outliers - María Paula Dieck

Hi, I am María Paula Dieck, the only Mexican selected to compete in the World University Figure Skating Championships in Russia. 

I started skating at the age of 5 and over the course of my life ice skating became a part of me. Skating classes suddenly turned into training sessions, training for competitions, and soon I started training six days a week at the Ice Complex in Santa Catarina.

By then I realized that I had more to offer sports, and now, at the age of 23, I still have that same belief as well as bigger and bigger goals in mind.

I am studying a B.Sc. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Tec Campus Monterrey. At first it was difficult to get used to the workload while continuing to attend my training sessions and spend my free time with my dogs, but, in the end, everything worked out when I was able to enter the program that had always caught my attention: DAAD. In this program, you study one semester in Germany and, for another semester, work in the company of your choice.

As in everything, at times I felt discouraged and even came to doubt myself, such as during the qualifications for the 2019 Winter Universiade in the Senior category. During the qualifying competition I was overconfident and did not do well in the second routine, so they took me off the podium.

At that moment, I wasn’t sure that this sport was for me, but thanks to the support of my parents and my coach I realized I was wrong and just because things go badly once it doesn’t mean you have to throw everything away. Soon afterwards, they announced that, thanks to my performance throughout the year, I had qualified to the World Championships.

This was when I realized that the most important events are not your achievements but the times when you fall down or don’t win, because that is when you learn the most. ‘The harder the fall, the stronger you rise.’ 

I am an Outlier because my story starts at Tec and ends up changing the world.