[11] With her teammate Ninoska Ortiz, Peña participated in the 20th Central American and Caribbean Games held in Cartagena, Colombia, where she finished eighth in the team competition and 22nd in the all-around; she did not qualify for any event final.

[13] At the XIII International Puerto Rico Cup, Peña was 12th on vault in qualifying with 13.600, 25th on uneven bars, 26th on balance beam, 27th on floor exercise, and 26th in the all-around with a 42.700.

[17] At the XXV International Gymnastics Tournament of the Americas held in Huelva, Spain, Peña won the gold medal in the all-around, scoring a 47.133, and was placed ahead of Costa Rican Carla Gutiérrez (44.300) and Spaniard Andrea Ortega (36.836).

[18][19] In 2009, Peña was awarded Athlete of the Year by the Association of Santo Domingo (ACD)[20] and separately by the Dominican Olympic Committee.

[21] After training in Miami, Peña participated at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, partnering with Montserrat Armenteros.

[24][25] Peña participated at the 2010 Senior Pan American Championships held in Guadalajara, Mexico, and finished with an all-around final ranking of 48th and a score of 44.232.

[31][32] In July, Peña competed in the XI Campeonato Internacional Estrellas Gimnas-Ticas, held in Costa Rica, where she won the gold medal in the vault event.

[41] For the first time, Peña participated at the World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, qualifying third in the vault event with a score of 14.466[42] after successfully landing the Produnova—a handspring double front, which had not been performed since 1999.

[46] In early 2012, her head coach Francisco Susana stated that because of the crowd and the presence of cameras, Peña had a panic attack after qualifying for the finals.

[7] In April, Peña finished the qualifying round in first place of the vault event at the 2012 World Cup held in Zibo, People's Republic of China.

[50] She scored 14.800 after successfully performing the handspring double front and a 1½ twisting Yurchenko,[51] and finished ahead of Chinese Cheng Fei (14.425) and Mexican Alexa Moreno (14.312).

[60] In preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Peña worked with her coaches Laura Ramírez and Francisco Susana, and performed her set to the song La llave de mi corazón by the Dominican singer and record producer Juan Luis Guerra.

[10][80] After arriving home, Peña attracted a lot of media coverage, being interviewed on several television programs, which talked about her courage, her way of living and the poor training conditions where she and 80 other gymnasts practice.

[2][79] Peña's sponsor ARS Universal named her its public image representative and granted her a scholarship, a high-profile life insurance and a RD$250,000—approximately US$6,500 in August 2012—prize.

[89] Peña was enlisted in the National Police with the rank of corporal and assigned to the sport group, also receiving a scholarship to pay for her college tuition.

[102] During a practice session on a mat which dated back to the 2003 Pan American Games, Peña landed in a hole and injured an ankle.

[105] Peña was one of the candidates for the top sports prize, the Dominican Republic Athlete of the Year, along with Luguelín Santos, Brenda Castillo, Aumi Guerra and the later winner, Félix Sánchez.

[110] As promised, Peña's coach resigned in May because his claim for a raise in salary was not given any attention, leaving the entire Dominican National team without training.

[111] In May, the Creating Olympic Dreams national program announced its support of Peña and another athletes to help them achieve their sporting and academic goals.

In the tournament, she scored 49.433 and was seventh in the individual all-around ranking after accumulating 13.300 in vault, 11.333 in uneven bars, 12.167 in balance beam and 12.633 in floor exercise.

[126] After a one-month training camp in the United States,[127] Peña participated in the Medellin World Challenge Cup, qualifying to the finals in uneven bars with 11.700[128] and vault 13.575.

[131][132] The Dominican Republic Gymnastics Federation reacted afterwards, claiming that Peña still does not have an appropriate gym and that she is winning a gold medal by heart.