Mariana Salazar... A Conventional Teenager?

Mariana or known as Mana, is a 16YO girl, which at her early age is setting a new boundary to downhill locally proving to be better than her rivals with is worth to be mention that all of them are boys and some of them much older than her, locally she's proven to in the Top 3 and in a Central American level the only girl competing in downhill, This coming years she's planning to go to the Pan-American competition sin Colombia, and if she manages the enough points, going to the 2011 WCMana with only 4 years she was introduced to motocross by her older brothers and her father, she manage to find her passion in this sport and suddenly she mange her self wining races, of course this wasn't an easy thing to accomplish.

She was one of the first girls to practice this sport in El Salvador, with her small KTM 50 cc and gear up with tiny full-face helmet and all the required equipment she build up the courage to get into the track and hit some runs, her skill form the first few laps was beginning to be noticed not just be her dad that was always looking after her, but also by the other boys and parents in the track, this caused some jealousy in some of the boys parents, watching a small girl dominating the track as non of there sons could, this jealously was hard for mana, due some of the parents told her sons "make that girl fall, and i'll buy you any toy that you want", just a ridiculous attitude from this parents, managing to stand up to all this problems Mana got better in motocross and she started to podium. She became one of the best in her age group, and in the blink of an eye she was junior national champion!


After being practicing motocross for 5 years, Mana was one of the best on MX not just in from the girls , but also winning against all the boys in her age group, she was reaching her top, but one sad day of 2004 Ricky Hellebuyck the winner of the central American cup, and the holder of the national title, and a close friend as Mana's family died, during a race, when his bike suffer engine break down, and his suffer spinal cord witch lead him to his death. this left Mana traumatized, and her parents didn't want her to keep on practicing MX.

She did adrenaline in her life, so she started doing some XC, but she quickly realized that she loved downhill, as she preferred to go down than up, she ask her dad to buy her a Giant Yukon FX, she started to go out with her older brother with the local DH team and here she meets Bimbo!, and he started to train her, as he taught her how to go down , the techniques and all skills for downhill. She started to go to the downhill academy that was taught by Bicimania a local bike store, this is where a meet mana, and it was a real surprise to me that she was so good and had a really good technique.

Mana rapidly became good at DH as she had all the technique from MX, she again started to podium, but the DH scene was more friendly and she found only support, and all of us where willing to help her, in 2006 she had her first podium she manage 2nd on junior, and this gave her all the confidence that she needed. After this her parent bought her and Kona Stinky Supreme, and with this bike she had a real improvement, as it was proper DH Bike.



After years of podium, she manage top 3 locally she started to go onto Guatemala and Honduras to race and of course she podium as well, she was recognize by all the central American scene that she was going to be a competitor that was not going to be take as a joke and she made a statement on in.


In 2010 she went to the Pam-American competition in Guatemala, running against well know competitors like Mexican-Pro Lorena Dromundo, and Brazilian-Pro Luana Oliveira among others. Managing to set the best time on qualifying run, but she didn't manage to do the race run due the judge considered that she was too young. But ether way she set the best time for this track, and proved that she has the skill to compete against world know competitors, and not only compete but also win them.


Now she is training to practice on the Pan- American competition on Colombia 2011, with an aim of according the enough UCI points to go to the 2011 World cup, she is practicing hard, on her local trails, as well as in local competitions in El Salvador, also in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico She is gaining each time more experience and claims to be ready to face this new challenge that will be an international race. Some sponsors will really come on handy, so if the know someone interested on sponsoring Mana let me know. She need all the support form us, only this way she will be able to make her dream come true, and as Steve Peat said," follow your dreams, one day you’ll tick them off" she will go after her dream of being WC champion, and kwon that she can, cause I've seen her talent.

Va jusqu'ou ton reve t'emporte un jour tu le toucheras


Thanks for reading and your support !!

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