When we asked María if she has a motto, she hesitated at first; then, one emerged: “Believing is the beginning.” She went on to explain, “My grandfather told me that. It’s what I learned after leaving track and field to start with volleyball. It’s really true —believing is the beginning. Whatever you’re doing, whoever you are, you have to believe that what you’re doing is good. You have to believe in yourself before anyone else does.”
Our Game-changer doesn’t stop. Literally. Her path is full of changes, jumps between countries, and various projects emerging alongside. It’s as if life constantly challenges her to adapt. When we interviewed María in early March, she was playing for the Columbus Fury in the top volleyball league in the United States. She was on cloud nine. Suddenly, everything goes off the rails. Is the American dream coming to an end?
She had to leave and find a new team.
“The transition from the U.S. to Puerto Rico was a very tough moment in my career. It was the first time I was released from a team. It was a political decision, due to the needs of the team, but it was hard for me to accept.” However, another door opened: she was released from her contract on a Friday at two in the afternoon, and by ten that night, she had already signed with the Atenienses de Manatí in Puerto Rico.
She arrived in the country on a Saturday and, without any delay, played her first match on Sunday. With barely one practice under her belt, she jumped onto the court and immediately felt the connection. “It was an experience that rekindled my love for volleyball, my passion. The arenas were packed, it was a playoff, and it was an energy boost. Both because of the team I joined and what was at stake… it all contributed.” María arrived just in time for the quarterfinals, and with her help, the team advanced. They won the semifinals against the team that had knocked out the Atenienses de Manatí the previous year, her former team, and on their home turf. “There were many things that, combined, brought me joy again. I can’t wait to go back.”
Go back?
As mentioned, she doesn’t stop. María is taking on a new challenge in Romania with CSM Târgoviște. “It’s a completely different destination, a different league. It’s a new adventure,” she says. So far, they’ve played in the Supercup, which they lost, and have started the league with a win. “There’s a lot ahead; this league is very long.”
It’s her tenth season. Let’s rewind now.
“Not a Goal, a Consequence”
“My mother and father both pursued professional sports, so my first role models were right at home. But I never chose this path thinking I’d make it too. From my point of view, becoming a professional player is a consequence, not an end goal in itself.” She’s made her own way, allowing the present to be the result of a natural progression, not a rigidly defined target. “It’s very hard to become a professional player, and there are so many challenges along the way that are difficult to achieve, manage, and live through… in the end, you leave a lot behind.”
Today, María lives in a different country, starts from scratch every eight months, and spends her days fully committed to volleyball. “I train six to eight hours a day, solely dedicated entirely and exclusively to sports, and I love volleyball,” she admits. But she also acknowledges that this level of dedication requires a bit of madness: “You kind of have to be… a bit crazy!”
At 18, María moved to Madrid from her native Asturias, intending to study Sports Science and pursue track and field. Yes, it wasn’t just volleyball that shaped her athletic foundation. In fact, she balanced both disciplines—with track and field taking up more training hours—until she made the move to the capital. The Track and Field Federation then offered her the opportunity to live at the Joaquín Blume residence and train with Arturo Ortiz. “Most of my friends were in track and field, so it was a very natural decision. It didn’t weigh on me; it didn’t hurt. As I said, everything has felt like a natural process for me, where I always made choices based on what made me happiest or what I liked most.”
In Madrid, she trained every day, pouring her efforts into improving her personal record. But after three years with no progress, the anxiety began to show. “It was psychologically very challenging, and I found my way back to volleyball as a mental escape from something that was causing me a lot of anxiety and stress from not achieving results in track and field.” Returning to volleyball marked a shift in perspective. “That’s how my love story with volleyball began,” she confesses, smiling. “I took it for what it is, a second chance to enjoy sports. The day I no longer enjoy this, it’s over; I’ll shut it all down.”
María also reflects on the psychological impact of her journey and how the approach to mental health in sports has evolved. “Going from being a young girl doing sports to entering adulthood with a hundred percent increase in sports commitment is psychologically very challenging,” she recalls. “Twelve years ago, sports psychology or mental health wasn’t what it is now—not even close. It was the opposite. It was like, ‘this girl is mentally weak,’ instead of, ‘Wow! Let’s work on this because it’s an extra asset we can leverage.’” Back then, the mentality was rigid: “There was simply a judgment: whether you were mentally strong or weak. But there was no work on it.”
Talking to her, and if you follow her on social media where she’s very active, it seems that her story is more than a series of sport achievements; it’s a reflection of a constant search for balance and purpose. For her, volleyball remains a passion but also a refuge and a reminder that, ultimately, “being a professional is just a consequence.”
“Life is not what happens, but how you manage what happens to you.”
At the end of 2022, María was playing in Germany (after having already played for several teams in Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic). It was a tough season in many ways, and when it ended, she knew she needed a change, although she wasn’t sure where to go. However, she was aware that the American league was emerging as an interesting opportunity. “Being there is very difficult,” she recalls. “I started visualizing in my head what it would be like, how it would be, and I saw myself there.” One day, talking to her parents, she said something that captured her determination perfectly: “The Americans don’t know it yet, but I’m going to be there; they don’t know it yet, but I’m going to be in both leagues.” Her dad laughed, thinking, “This girl’s crazy.” But she meant it.
She started looking into how she could make it a reality. She reached out to contacts to find out how things worked over there, how to get recruited, and what was required. She sent out resumes and videos to various coaches and didn’t stop until, yes, she made it happen.“This time, I did everything myself, which isn’t typical because I usually work with an agent. But I moved everything myself because I knew the one who would fight 100 percent for this would be me, especially since there were already good offers in Europe.”
Even for someone as determined as María, doubts arise. In May, offers from European teams started coming in, and time was running out to sign with someone. “You start to get those thoughts, like, ‘What if I’m here fighting for a dream and end up with nothing?’ Everything was on the table, but no one was telling me yes or no.” She recalls that, in those moments of feeling pretty lost, one of her best friends reminded her of her essence: “María, I’m not saying this to give you a solution or anything, but since I’ve known you, whenever you’ve set your mind on something, you’ve achieved it. I don’t understand why, now that you’re so close to getting an answer, you’d throw it all away just because it might not happen. That’s not who you are.”
Determination, preparation, and the voices of those who truly know her. The team that selected her was the Columbus Fury in Ohio. Packed stadiums, top-notch sports facilities, and being part of a historic moment: playing the first match for the Pro Volleyball Federation and celebrating that professional women’s volleyball had become a reality in the U.S.
She did not complete the season, and as she shared on social media: “There are decisions that are not up to you; there are moments in life where you can do nothing but seek other paths. Life is not what happens to you but how you manage what happens to you.”
“This Is a Project”
You can immediately sense the energy and enthusiasm she brings to everything she does. She expands, seeks new pathways, and discovers that marketing, sports management, and injury rehabilitation are also part of her interests and quickly become new areas of action. “It’s all a bit around the world of sports,” she admits with a smile, as if that constant, secure orbit around sports is both a refuge and a certainty.
With the arrival of the pandemic, María, like so many others, found herself with time to reflect. An idea emerged: what if she could bring young people not only her knowledge of volleyball but also a holistic approach to injury prevention and physical development? “Interacting with the younger categories, I realized that no one was working on injury prevention. No one was doing rotator cuff exercises, nothing… and then there were many people with issues they didn’t even understand.”
On social media, she started sharing simple exercises that young athletes could do at home. Her posts aimed to prevent common injuries, with exercises to strengthen that “adjacent musculature,” which she believes is key to avoiding physical problems in the future. The response was so positive that a friend pointed out something obvious: “This is a project.” And so, IMPROVE was born.
“At first, I didn’t even know what entrepreneurship was,” she confesses. But, as always, when something excites her, she dives in, researches, tests. IMPROVE turned into a network of summer camps, a training space that grew from fifteen to sixty participants in four years, and it continues to grow. For her, it’s about planting a shift in mentality: educating parents, coaches, and young athletes in areas she considers essential, from injury prevention to warm-up optimization.
She also began giving talks about her sports experience, initially online and now in person. And her vision extends beyond sports teams to companies as well. “Sports and the business world go hand in hand,” she argues. “In the end, I work with 13 other women, each with her own ideas and challenges, and we all have to come to an agreement to reach a common goal. That dynamic is identical to any team in a company.”
With a clear goal in mind, our Game-changer and her teammates have been working for years with the Spanish national volleyball team. The results are coming in. This summer, Las Leonas del Vóley have managed to secure their qualification for the European Championship and the World Cup in 2025 in Thailand, a tournament that Spain hasn’t participated in for 43 years. “To be one of the greats, you have to be with the greats,” says María. “This is the first step.”
Every achievement and every challenge teaches her that when one door closes, there is always a window that opens.
