Traveling great distances to attend a university is a tough choice for any athlete, but the decision to pursue a college education in the United States can be an especially life-altering experience for international student-athletes. Leaving behind their families, cultures, and everything familiar to step into the unknown can be daunting. But the allure of chasing athletic dreams while simultaneously acquiring an education is a powerful draw.
For Laura Cooke, a fifth-year gymnast at Iowa State from Norwich, England, the decision has been nothing short of transformative. “I’d never heard of Iowa until I got offered a visit. I had no idea what it was,” she recalled. Although she had visited America before on family holidays, she was taken aback by how different Iowa was compared to other states she had explored. “It was so calm,” she said, and it stood in stark contrast to cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles that she had visited before.
When she first arrived, her plan was to complete her four years of college and return to England. However, as time went on, her aspirations shifted. “Realizing the opportunities here in the States and how great they are is something that surprised me, and I see my future here now. I want to apply to grad school and eventually work in the US, if that’s possible,” Cooke explained. For her, this significant change in plans can be attributed to the experiences she’s had on the Iowa State team. “It’s a lot due to the team and the family aspect,” Cooke said. Creating “relationships, friendships, and connections” has been instrumental, she emphasized.
This sense of connection is not unique to Laura. Her Guatemalan teammate, Ana Irene Palacios, has also discovered the magic of the NCAA. Palacios, who represented Guatemala at multiple Pan American championships, the Pan American Games, and two world championships, cherishes the camaraderie of competing as part of a team. “I like the ‘your win is my win’ mentality,” she said. Reflecting on her experiences in her elite career she said, “In my case, I was alone; I was competing for myself and for my country. I didn’t have a team so it really was a big change for me. I really enjoy competing with the team, and the level of support and cheering is so much louder here.” She also appreciates the ability to combine both her academics and sport. “Back home in Guatemala, I tried to combine both, and it was a little bit difficult because either the gymnastics part or the university would not let me do both things as I would like to. But that’s one of the things that I knew from the beginning about coming to the US to do college, Palacios said.
But there have been challenges, too. “The cold,” both girls replied when asked about the biggest shock. Their American teammate, Hannah Loyim, concurred. “One time I walked to class, and my hair and eyelashes froze, it wasn’t even wet, and my eyelashes had ice on them.” For Palacios, her first visit to Iowa was the first time she’d ever seen snow. She vividly recalled an early experience at Iowa State where she was so cold on her way to class that she had to stop in at a store to buy warmer clothing. “I was like, this is not okay. I don’t care if it’s expensive; I’m buying it because I don’t want to freeze.”
I wanted to know what having international student-athletes brought to a team so I asked Loyim, a New York native and junior at Iowa State, what she’d learned from her international teammates. Loyim relayed that she is grateful for the diversity on the team. “It’s really cool, and that’s one of the main reasons I chose to come here. I grew up in New York City, so it was pretty diverse, and I was used to that. Even coming to Iowa, I was really surprised at how diverse it was, and how the team really embraced it rather than putting it aside,” Loyim said. One of the big differences she noticed in her international peers was the difference in their style of gymnastics. Talking about Palacios’ floor she said, “I just can’t even express how beautiful her routine is. It makes me want to challenge myself and my artistry.” Having athletes on the team who have been part of the elite world brings something special, too. “The difficulty is there, they’re clean gymnasts, and their intensity in training is really helpful for the team, especially when the assignments are hard. They put 110% in every single day,” Loyim said. That’s something that she feels improves the performance of the whole team.
This was a sentiment echoed by Kinsey Davis, a North Carolina native and senior at Nebraska, when I spoke to her about the impact of international student-athletes on her team. “It grows the culture of the team a ton,” she commented. “It makes us share our perspectives and our points of view. And it’s helped me grow a lot as an individual and learn a lot about other cultures than my own because, it kind of makes you take a look at how someone else views something that maybe I would have never thought of.” When asked about struggles that can arise from having people from such different backgrounds on one team she replied, “I’m a senior now, and this is definitely the most well-bonded team I have ever been a part of, and half of our team could not be more different… it’s really kind of forced us, for lack of a better word, to have to understand one another… it makes you that much more interested to understand one another and get to know them on a deeper level. And I think that’s going to absolutely pay off on the competition floor because this is such a strong bond, and I feel like we really know each other inside and out”.
For Lucy Stanhope, a senior who spent her previous three seasons at Utah but made the move to Nebraska during the transfer window, her experience has been similar to her international counterparts at Iowa State. “It’s so windy in Nebraska. I thought Utah was cold, but here it’s cold and windy, so it’s even worse.” For her, a self-proclaimed introvert, one of the biggest shocks has been the fact that people are more willing to talk to each other than they are in England. “You walk down the street and people are like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t know you’, So, it was a lot more interactive, which shocked me,” she said. “That was one thing that caught me off guard a little bit.” Now Stanhope says she likes that element that was once shocking.
Her Hungarian teammate, Csenge Bácskay, agreed, “I had a culture shock when I came here because in Hungary we just don’t smile 24/7. Every single day people would ask, ‘Are you OK?’ They thought I had something going on and I was just minding my own business! So yeah, they definitely taught me how to smile more and express my feelings and emotions”.
In addition to adjusting to various social customs, there are cultural distinctions within the gym. According to Cooke, in England, a kip is referred to as an upstart, and a front aerial is called a free walkover. The complexity only increases when different languages are involved. Palacios explains that in Guatemala, a front aerial is known as a ‘handball.’ With the many differences just in the gym environment, I wanted to know how international athletes perceive various seasonal traditions and holidays, including Thanksgiving.
Cooke expressed pleasant surprise at the authenticity of Thanksgiving celebrations. She remarked, “I feel like a lot of people get caught up at Christmas, just getting presents and stuff, and having a holiday where you celebrate being thankful for what you have… I really like that.” Stanhope’s initial encounter with Thanksgiving occurred during COVID-19, but she and her team at Utah spent it together with food in the gym. In subsequent years, she celebrated with teammates and friends from other sports, noting that “teammates always invited you over so that nobody was alone.” Recently, she had her first experience of a pumpkin patch in Nebraska, a novel experience for her. She stated, “I’ve never been to one in England. I don’t even think we have one where I live. And people were eating corn dogs, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is really American.’” She was also surprised by the magnitude of Halloween celebrations, noting that “everybody dresses up. Whereas in England, nobody does that.”
Stanhope’s favorite Thanksgiving food is green bean casserole, but she still misses Heinz-branded baked beans. She commented, “Everybody makes fun of beans on toast, but they don’t know what it’s like. They don’t understand the difference between Heinz beans and their beans, so sometimes when I go home, I will bring some kind of beans back.” One of her teammates’ preferred British snacks is chocolate caramel digestive biscuits. “Every time I go home and come back, I have to bring like four packets; I don’t think I’ve had a single bad comment about them,” Stanhope said.
One of the great things about having international athletes in the NCAA is being able to share their successes on their respective national teams with their college teammates. At the recent World Championships in Antwerp, Csenge Bácskay secured herself a named spot at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Davis shared the team’s excitement at her success. “That was such a monumental moment. I know that on social media, the caption for Nebraska Gymnastics was ‘her dream is our dream’, and it really is. We could not be more proud or thrilled for her.” For Bácskay, her success was due, in part, to her experience at Nebraska. Reflecting on her freshman year, Bácskay remarked, “I feel like, personally, I changed a lot mentality–wise.” She credits the Nebraska program for showing her the joy of gymnastics, something she didn’t fully grasp in Hungary. “It really showed me what having fun means when I’m doing gymnastics because in Hungary I didn’t really get that feeling,” Bácskay reflected. She also notes how she used to get very nervous before routines and her experiences in the NCAA have taught her to calm herself down and, although she found the noise at meets difficult at first, she now finds that she misses it when she competes internationally.
Despite her success on the international stage, she still has the NCAA firmly on her mind, “First, I really wanna focus on season because last year I was sick and then I got injured, and my season didn’t really go as I planned. I definitely feel so much stronger and more ready. After the season’s done, I’m going to rest a bit and then I’m going to start practicing for the Olympics” She hopes that afterwards some of her teammates will come and visit her in Budapest.
Reflecting on the experiences of these international student-athletes, it becomes evident that their contributions extend far beyond the gymnastics arena. Their presence enriches the cultural tapestry of their teams, fostering a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and forging strong bonds that transcend borders. Whether it’s embracing American traditions like Thanksgiving or navigating the differences in gymnastics terminology, these athletes have embraced the challenges and triumphs of their dual roles as competitors and students. The journey of Cooke, Palacios, Bácskay, Stanhope, and their peers exemplifies the transformative power of the NCAA experience. As they continue to navigate through the remaining seasons of their collegiate gymnastics careers, their impact resonates not only within their respective teams but also within the broader gymnastics community, leaving an enduring legacy of resilience, friendship, and shared dreams.
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Article by Katie Couldrey
