Date and Place of Birth: January 28th, 1981. La Vega, Dominican Republic. 

Growing up: living in the Caribbean, Raquel was very active ever since her childhood; she did recreational skating, horse riding, motorcycle riding, swimming, judo, karate, triathlon and mountain bike riding witch was one of her favorite activities. 

Nowadays: After switching from a more than 10 years of a professional career in the banking industry, having her adorable daughter and more than 15 years out of competitive sports, she decided to follow her passion: Triathlon.

Raquel was born on January 28, 1981, in La Vega, Dominican Republic.
She grew up in the town of La Vega, located in the Center of Dominican Republic. In this small town, where things were simple, life was quiet and safe. Raquel swam from the age of 3,  participating in children’s swimming events until about the age of 11.

Initially swimming was not her passion during her childhood years she showed interest in cycling and joined a local MTB club.  A few years later a swimming coach, observed her agility and passion on the bike and mentioned her about a sport totally unknown to many at that time called "Triathlon".

The 90s. La Vega, DR.
Around when she was 12 years, Raquel participated in triathlons in a Club called Valle Verde located approximately 7 kilometers from home, on a hill with a slope of about 22% of inclination and 1.5 kilometers long with her brother and friends they used to ride their bikes for swim practice at the top of the mountain where there was a 25 meter pool.

Later, thanks to her performance at national level and the support of another mentor in running. Raquel had the opportunity to participate at international events, like Central American and Junior Pan American Games, reaching the podium in most of the races even with only sporadic training.

University years and finance career in Dominican Republic.

In 1998 Raquel graduated from Agustiniano High School and continue her undergraduate studies at the Pontificia Universidad Madre y Maestra, completely pausing activities in sports. She graduated in Business Administration at the PUCMM University with an Athletic Scholarship and started to work in the banking industry. Raquel did a post graduate degree in Logistics at UNAPEC University, while working in the banking industry, which demanded a lot of discipline because during that course, Raquel had her amazing daughter Chantal.

2009-2012 MBA, Michigan USA.

After nearly 7 years working in the banking industry, Raquel applied to one of her dreams, to study abroad and earned a scholarship, which allowed her to pursue an MBA (Masters Business Administration) at Western Michigan University, she graduated in 2012. 

Upon graduation Raquel manages to enter the area of finance as bank executive for Fifth Third Bank, for reasons of logistics with the time and education of her daughter, she decided to give up not only the position but her banking career, Raquel spend some time looking for something that would allow her to find family and professional balance.

Then she started coaching with a program called "Girls on The Run," a North American non-profit program that works to encourage teen girls to develop self-steam and healthy lifestyles through dynamic, interactive lessons and running games, culminating in a 5k run. Parallel to this Raquel worked at Bronson Athletic Club as a swim instructor and coach.

In the summer of 2012 after such a long absence from sports, Raquel started running frequently in those days she got encouraged to do a triathlon just for fun and to complete a triathlon. 
Purchased an affordable bike and two weeks later she did an Olympic Distance triathlon without training, with more than a decade without biking and with very little experience in this kind of competition.

She had some doubts as to how her body would react with the distances of swimming 1,500 meters, cycling 40 kms and 10 kms run. She decided and took the challenge, she ended up in the 2nd position overall. A few weeks later, she competed in the Triathlon Championship for Michigan and finished first overall.
Months after this the Triathlon Federation called and invited her to compite as internationally as elite triathlete at the ITU (International Triathlon Union).

Winter of 2012

Raquel was invited by a triathlete friend to an activity of a local club Trikats and Athletic Mentors, lucky her, she won a raffle of a VO2max test (that measures the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can absorb, transport and consume in a given time of exercise-aerobic capacity).

During the test Coach Mark Olson attended, who is the head coach of Athletic Mentors, leaders in Michigan and surrounding areas of the United States in training and athletic performance, Coach Mark has been her coach ever since.

Two months later Raquel started training properly, the Dominican Federation of Triathlon invited Raquel to participated in a Pan American Cup Triathlon (ITU-Elite) in Juan Dolio, DR, with just a few months of training and finished at Elite Category12th overall and first among the Dominicans.

Raquel then began to set goals (which seemed impossible) and the Federation encouraged her to classify for the Central American Games, Pan American Games and Olympic Games.
Raquel studied and learned the critical route and rules to classify for each stage, how the point system works and how ranking is attained.
She illustrated the system to the Dominican Triathlon Federation which is somewhat challenging in several aspects. Also challenging to keep the balance of working responsibilities and her daughter’s education.
With the help of sponsors Raquel had the opportunity to keep racing internationally and had many experiences at Elite International (ITU) Level. She had the opportunity to compete at the highest level of International Triathlon, she qualified to a few World Cups, World Series and Qualified to Central American Games and Toronto Pan-American Games 2015.