A Year of Growth: The Story of How the University of Wyoming Nordic Ski Team Became an International Host

In the Fall of 2019, the Kinesiology and Health department at the University of Wyoming signed a contract with Shanghai University of Sport stating that we would host and train ten of their athletes to become competitive Nordic Skiers. Rachel Watson and Christi Boggs, the coaches of the University of Wyoming team, traveled to Shanghai to handpick the ten athletes that would become a part of their family-like team for a whole year. In August of 2019, the athletes from Shanghai joined me and the rest of my teammates. While we originally thought we would just be teaching them how to ski, it turned into much more than that. In the whirlwind of combining our two cultures as we shared almost every day together, I realized we were in the midst of an incredible story that needed to be shared. With the outlet of my Honors Capstone, I took a creative route and decided to write short stories in a blog format of the time that I shared with my Shanghai teammates. Knowing that this epic adventure could not be told by just my perspective I collected the writings of my teammates to add to my blog. In the end, I published the full timeline of the Nordic Ski season of 2019-2020 on the University of Wyoming Nordic Ski Team website to showcase the wonders of my teammates and our experiences.