Meet Maya: The UAE Swimmer Doing School Differently

For many young athletes in the UAE, balancing training, competitions, and school can feel like a constant juggling act. Early mornings in the pool, travel for events, and hours of practice leave little time for traditional school routines.

For Maya, a professional swimmer living in Abu Dhabi, finding the right school changed everything.

When I joined CGA, it allowed me to have a better school life balance. It allowed me to focus on my athletics, my education, and my grades, and also have more time for myself and for my friends.

Maya is a student at Crimson Global Academy (CGA), the international online high school designed for ambitious students who need flexibility without compromising academic quality. With small, live classes and students joining from dozens of countries, CGA gives learners the freedom to build a schedule around their goals. 

For Maya, that flexibility meant she could finally pursue swimming and school without one competing with the other.

Growing Up Swimming in Abu Dhabi

Swimming has always been more than a sport for Maya. It is something she genuinely loves.

The most thing I love about swimming is the feeling of the water like around your body. Like when you’re going super fast, it feels like amazing. You feel like you’re a dolphin-

Growing up in Abu Dhabi, Maya attended a traditional physical school. Like many student athletes in the UAE, she followed a conventional school schedule while training seriously in her sport.

The idea of switching to an online high school in the UAE was initially very unfamiliar as she had only previously attended physical schools. However, once Maya experienced the flexibility of online learning, it quickly began to make sense for her lifestyle.

Searching For The Right School

For Maya’s family, choosing an international online school required careful research. Her father, Jean-Baptiste Goetz, says they explored several options before deciding on CGA.

CGA stands out a lot. CGA's profile and everything they were offering was pretty much the best choice of all.

For families of student athletes, flexibility is often one of the most important factors when choosing a school. Training schedules and competitions rarely fit into a traditional timetable.

For Jean-Baptiste, this was one of the biggest reasons CGA stood out.

And especially flexibility that’s the the key word I think. CGA is flexible, we can organize everything and the quality of the product, of the materials, is high quality.

That flexibility is one of the defining features of CGA’s online model. Students can organise their learning schedule around their commitments while studying globally recognised academic programmes.

Learning Independence Through Online Education

Like many students transitioning to online learning, Maya had to develop new skills.

When I first joined CGA I wasn’t super organised or independent but I grew to become more independent and organised.

Over time, the online learning environment helped her build independence while still receiving strong academic support.

Teachers also understand the unique challenges that athletes face.

I really like my Da Vinci teachers because they’re not only very sweet and nice, they also understand the athlete program. They are very flexible and allow me to extend due dates if I need to because of a competition coming up.

For students pursuing sport at a high level, this kind of understanding from teachers can make a significant difference.

Inspired by Maya’s story?

Discover how students in the UAE are balancing their passions with a flexible global education at Crimson Global Academy.

Watch Maya’s full story in the video below.