How a kid copying workouts became a clinician who builds.
The kid from Bogotá
I started working out at home at 13, copying what I saw. I played football, like almost every kid in Colombia, at a neighborhood academy.
One day the coach, who lived nearby, stopped by my house. I overheard him telling his wife that his son wanted to study physical education and everything you could do with it. I was in my last year of school. That same afternoon I told my mom: “I know what I want to study now.”
The exam I failed
I finished school with good grades and applied to Universidad Pedagógica, one of my country's public universities. They had an entrance exam. I didn't pass it.
I've always been good at tests, but I read slowly. That day, slow reading kept me from finishing. It hurt at the time. Today I know that exam I failed led me exactly where I needed to be.
I changed course and studied Physical Activity, aimed more at fitness than teaching. And there it hit me: this was what I really wanted.
The trainer who wanted to be complete
I started working as a trainer. But I soon hit my limit: I couldn't treat someone with an injury. That wasn't my field. So I asked the question that changed everything: why not study physiotherapy and become a more complete professional?
That's how my path in physiotherapy began. Studying in Colombia isn't cheap, so my journey of working and studying at the same time started. While finishing my education, I grew through roles in football, gym-floor training, group exercise, club management and professional education.
The curiosity between the lines
I was always curious about technology. During the pandemic I found Platzi, and there I found data science. Something clicked. But I had a rule with myself: finish physiotherapy first. So I studied programming in the gaps, without letting go of what I already was.
Saudi Arabia
I finished my physiotherapy degree and the opportunity came to move to Saudi Arabia. I didn't think twice. When I arrived, I continued the cycle that has shaped most of my career: working, studying and building at the same time.
I began pursuing a long-held goal: doctoral research. My PhD in Physical Activity and Sport now gives me a framework for connecting human performance, longitudinal data and real-world decision-making.
Far from everything familiar, I found a path into applied health data and product building. I began developing software and learned that data can do more than describe a business. Used responsibly, it can help people and organizations understand what to do next.
Who I am today
After 14 years across fitness, training, management and rehabilitation, I asked myself what the next step was. Data and AI became another way to connect what happens in the body with what happens in real services and organizations.
From all of that comes who I am today: a trainer, physiotherapist, operator, doctoral researcher exploring a new path, and builder who uses data and AI to create practical decision-support tools.