In her first triathlon, Maha Akl fell twice during the bike leg.
"I still have the mark on my elbow," the redshirt sophomore on the Colorado Mesa triathlon team said.
Then again, she had trained for the race on a mountain bike, so the lighter frame and skinny tires had her struggling to control the bike, especially on turns, which is where she hit the pavement.
"Before triathlon, I was doing (modern) pentathlon, which consists of running, swimming, riding horses, shooting a laser gun and fencing," she said of growing up in Cairo, Egypt. "And then one day my running coach told me, 'Hey, there is a race that is happening next weekend. Do you want to join us to try it out?' I was like, great, I would love to try. I had never tried a road bike in my life."
She and her mother went to a bike shop, but it had no road bikes, only mountain bikes, because in the busy capitol city, road racing was "a little bit dangerous."
"I took (the mountain bike) and tried it, and then when I raced, I did really good on the run, but I didn't do good on the (road) bike, obviously," Akl said.
But she showed promise and was invited — at 13 years old — to join the Egyptian national team.
She was a busy teen, a pentathlete, a budding triathlete and was appearing on a television show, plus her regular schoolwork.
One of her course instructors was impressed by how she handled herself and was well-spoken. He asked if she'd be interested in appearing on an educational show for children.
Much like giving triathlon a try, Akl said why not?
"It was a TV show for kids and was kind of like giving … scientific facts, educational, but in a fun way," she said. "We would show some graphics explaining this so it would be fun for them. I started in 2013 and was with it all the way until I left."
In 2015, her family moved from Egypt to Texas, where her father is a vice president of a newspaper. Before they left, she was appearing on two television shows, and her father thought about starting a show for older children in Texas, but it never got off the ground.
The 13-year-old was at ease on the TV show, whether she was interviewing adults about the topic of the day or those in her age group.
"I think being close to their age, because I was 13 years old, it kind of made them feel more interested in watching," Akl said. "I mean, if it was an adult, they would be like, nah, but if it's someone who can relate to them, speak in the same way, because I tried … I wasn't trying to talk very professional, I was trying to make it fun."
One show centered on young musicians, who were shown performing, and Akl talked with them about how they became interested in music and whatever instrument they played.
"It was really, really cute," she said. "We would ask them how they started, why do they like it? They would tell us other educational stuff and (kids) would find it interesting and they'd be like, oh, I want to learn, I want to learn to play the piano or learn the flute."
The show, roughly translated from Egyptian Arabic to English, was called "Girl and Boy," was popular because of the format.
"That was the point of the TV show, is to get someone close to their age, someone who knows how to talk, and at the same time knows how to interact with kids," Akl said. "And I think that was from the producer and was really, really smart to do."
Her native language is Egyptian Arabic, but she's fluent in English, speaks German and also studied Hungarian. Akl, who has been married for just more than a year, is learning Spanish because her husband, Claudio Quintero, is Venezuelan.
Her busy schedule didn't slow down once the family moved to the United States. She was running cross country and swimming at school, and was competing in occasional triathlons. After she graduated from high school, Akl took a gap year, traveling abroad, and was looking at attending Colorado Mesa after that year off.
Her status as an international student was cost-prohibitive, so she went to Lonestar Community College and earned her associates degree, then attended CMU online starting in the spring semester of 2022.
Her advisor told her she would need to be on campus her final semester, so Akl reached out to triathlon coach Jen Mathe and joined the team this fall. She and the Mavericks will compete in the USA Triathlon Collegiate West National Qualifier on Saturday (Oct. 14) in Springfield, Mo., eyeing a spot in the national championships in November in Tempe, Ariz.
Akl said she most enjoys the running portion of triathlon, and her swimming background helps.
"I personally am not a big fan of the bike," she said. "That's my weak sport. I'm a swimmer, originally when I started, I was a swimmer, but the one that I really, really like the most is the run."
She'll graduate in December, but plans to return to Grand Junction next fall as a graduate student and continue to compete for the Mavericks.
Her husband is working in Michigan for a year, and Akl has already booked a flight to visit him as soon as the triathlon season ends. The business administration major hasn't settled on her master's field of study, likely business or law-related.
By taking summer classes and more over the winter break, Akl caught up from the gap year, despite also working full-time at a law office in Texas. Oh yeah, she was also planning her wedding.
Time management? "It's my middle name," she said with a smile.
"I've talked (to people) about not having time to do this," Akl said. "Trust me, you do. You just need to schedule what you need to do. I would have my schedule, and this needs to be done at that time. If it's past that, well, it's over. … I would have to skip a study hour, for example, or I would have to skip the training because of work or because of a test, whatever reason, but when you have a schedule for a daily routine, it's really, really helpful."
