Three years later she trained daily at the Club Natación Metropole in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and participated in her first Spanish Artistic Gymnastics Championship.

[11] After her retirement in 1980, Mendizábal got a degree in INEF, then she was appointed director of the Municipal School of Gymnastics of Las Rozas.

[12][13] After teaching several subjects related to gymnastic skills at the INEF in Madrid, she moved in 1998 to the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo.

[15] Susana has also written documents such as the Improvement Plan 2007-2011 of the Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, within the Institutional Evaluation Program 2005–2006.

In the book "Pinceladas de rittmica", former gymnast Montse Martín and her brother Manel attribute to Susana part of the popularity of rhythmic at national level by noting that "[Marta Bobo was] one of the 'guilty' of publicizing rhythmic gymnastics in Spain, along with her predecessor, Susana Mendizábal".

[16] Journalist Luz Sánchez-Mellado said in an article in El País Semanal in 1993 that: Susana Mendizábal was for a time something like the national bride.

In the late seventies, when Spain was starting to emerge from the hole, this Aragonese stood in the final of the European championship and brought home a bronze that tasted like gold to the fans.