Tennis
Economics is not my only passion. Tennis is another. I play and compete regularly since I was 5. I even taught tennis for many years.
As from 2018, I am member of the Board of Directors of the Catalan Tennis Federation (FCT), jointly trying to foster tennis in Cataluña!
As a team player, in the last years I have played for Tennis Can Via and previously for Segur de Calafell. We have't done that bad; we have actually won some competitions. Since the 2020-2021 seasson, we proudly represent Tennis Hospitalet (my home city) in Catalan and Spanish competitions.
Individually, I have done some good results too (and many not so good ones). In 2019, I won the Master of the Copa Catalunya Circuit (seniors +30).
At international level, and since 2016, I compete in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) senior circuit. In 2016, I won two tournaments (+35 years) in both singles and doubles! That made me 150 in the ITF+35 world ranking (August 2016) in singles, and 89 in doubles. In 2021, I won the mixed doubles at the ITF-PoloBarcelona tournament.
During my student years I also represented the universities were I sudied. Back in Bogotá, I played for Universidad de Los Andes from 1998 to 2000, (winning several medals in individual and team tournaments, and specially with my long-time doubles partner Mario Sandoval). In Spain, I have represented the UAB in the "Campionats de Catalunya Universitaris". In 2001, we made it to the team finals, and in 2003 I was runner-up in the individual draw.
As an Erasmus student in the UK in 2002, playing for the University of Reading, we made it to the national semifinals. In 2014, as PhD student visiting the London School of Economics, I was back on the "university courts". With the LSE Tennis Team we won our regional group and reached the finals of the British University and College´s (BUCS) team championship.
It is not about the victories though; what I am proud of is the chance to have played with the amazing people I met in all those places.
Of course, I cannot forget all the years, and childhood friends I made, playing in Club de Tennis Fontanar, in Club Hatogrande, in la Liga de Tennis de Bogota and in the Colombian national tournaments ("los nacionales").