Melanie Díaz


Melanie Díaz González is a Puerto Rican table tennis player. As of August 2019, she has been in position 88th with 3840 points in the ITTF Women's World Ranking.

Personal life

Melanie Díaz comes from a family with a table tennis tradition rooted in the mountainous municipality of Utuado. Compared to other players at her level, she's trained and coached by her father, Bladimir Díaz. Melanie is the sister of the table tennis player, Adriana Díaz, and cousin of Brian Afanador. She is a supporter and advocate of the animal rights movement and practices veganism.

Career

International rise

Melanie Díaz irrupted onto the international arena by winning silver in the women's doubles at the side of Adriana Díaz during the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games. In 2015, she won her first Pan American bronze medal in the women's team competition alongside Adriana Díaz and teammate, Carelyn Cordero at the 2015 Pan American Games.
At the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games Melanie Díaz scored two gold medals. The first gold came from competing with Adriana in the women's doubles. The second came from playing in the female team alongside her sisters Adriana and Fabiola, and Daniely Ríos. She also won silver in mixed doubles playing with Daniel González.

Turning point at Lima 2019

Melanie Díaz first attained individual international recognition during the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, where she was seeded #6 in the women category. She helped win the first Pan American Table Tennis gold for Puerto Rico when playing at the Women's doubles beside her sister Adriana. Díaz also established her status as a separate international medalist by winning individual bronze at the Women’s singles. She shared the bronze podium at this event's medal ceremony with Brazilian Bruna Takahashi. Díaz finally played against Bruna Takahashi in a close and lively game during the final women's team, in which she helped earn one more gold for her team. Because of her playing skills in this match, international press nicknamed the female players of the Puerto Rican team as the "comeback kids."