An empty, motionless room that you can’t leave. Nothing but yourself, white bed sheets and a daunting view of a city skyline.
When Zach Nunis, a University of Idaho track and field athlete, was legally required to self-isolate for two weeks in a Brisbane, Australia hotel room, his long journey home to Melbourne last summer became exponentially longer because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“At that point, I hadn’t seen my family for almost two years,” Nunis said. Nunis is a senior working on his major in accounting. “The time and obstacles I had to go through just to see them were pretty crazy.”
Nunis’ risky and detour-filled journey home was not an isolated challenge. His was just one of many struggles COVID-19 brought upon international student athletes at Idaho and colleges around the country over the past two years.
In March 2020, when the pandemic began, many international athletes were forced to make quick decisions. Women’s soccer player Julia Bailey was forced to rush home to Canada before the borders closed. Men’s tennis player Bruno Casino had a tournament cancelled right before he had to decide if he would return home to Spain. And female track athlete Franzi Stöhr debated whether to leave Germany and take the risk of travelling overseas.
American student athletes can travel home if things go wrong, but internationals, like Nunis, risk not seeing family for years just to compete in a Vandals uniform.
Nunis’ adventure began two weeks after his 2021 spring track season, where he qualified for the first round of the NCAA track and field championships in the men’s long jump. When the time came to board his first of four flights in Spokane, Wash., he was sent back to Moscow because his COVID-19 rapid test was deemed “inaccurate” by airport officials.
The scary thing for Nunis was that his family was running out of time. They would only have a few weeks to see each other in person, and the possibility of not being in Australia for a third straight year became more and more real.
“I was crying when I left the [Spokane] airport,” said Nunis. “My friends picked me up and took me to Sonic afterwards, and I cried a little more. I called my parents and told them I may not be coming home again.”
Luckily for Nunis, his family was able to get short-notice business-class flights home.
After receiving his PCR test, he flew three hours to Los Angeles a week later and departed for Singapore the next day. The journey over the Pacific took roughly 17 hours, but to Nunis, comfortable business-class flying made it worth it.
“I’m spoiled now after riding in business-class,” Nunis said. “I could fold my chair into a bed and sleep properly for eight of those seventeen hours. It was nuts.”
From Singapore, Nunis arrived in Brisbane and was quickly put in a hotel room near the airport with a big window that overlooked the city’s skyline. He could not leave the room for any reason for the next two weeks. If he got locked out, he could be fined $2,000.
To pass the time, Nunis learned songs on his ukulele, took baths, watched movies and Australian soccer, called people and even attempted to stay in shape. He did core workouts in his room and recorded videos of himself deadlifting his bed.
“I was in pretty good shape and could find creative ways to train,” Nunis said. “I would deadlift and bench-press my bed and do bicep pumps with a table that was glued to the wall.”
Then after his flight to Melbourne, the long-awaited Nunis family reunion occurred on Jul. 9–his mother’s birthday.
To go home, or not to go home?
Bruno Casino was in the middle of his tennis season when his family in Spain told him about a rapidly spreading virus in Europe. It was March 2020, and the United States was not a hotspot yet. When he and his team traveled to Utah to compete in a tournament, they discovered the event was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
“We weren’t too worried at first because the U.S. (coronavirus) situation wasn’t bad,” Casino said. “But after the tournament got cancelled, we had no idea what was going on, and some of the guys on the team became a little nervous about traveling with the virus. Our coach booked us a flight back to Moscow the next day.”
Other athletes at the university like Nunis were still competing during that time. When the NCAA announced that all sports would be canceled, Nunis decided to stay on the continent and rush with friends to Canada for the summer before the borders closed. Women’s soccer defender Julia Bailey, who was playing at the University of Memphis at the time, also packed her things and drove 18 hours home to Ottawa.
But Casino chose to stay in Moscow and finish spring classes while most of his teammates went home.
“It was easier for me to finish the semester here,” said Casino. “I didn’t want to worry about having to take online classes at night because of the time-change, and the COVID situation here was much better anyway.”
Casino would later find tickets to fly home to Santander, Spain, in the middle of May.
Leaving with no guarantee of returning
Some international Vandal athletes who hadn’t even begun their first year were faced with similar choices. Franzi Stöhr, a sophomore hurdler on the women’s track team, debated whether to leave her hometown of Landau, Germany in the fall and take the risk of getting stuck in another country away from her family.
“Four weeks before I came (to Idaho), I almost said, ‘I’m not going,’” said Stöhr. “I thought about taking a gap year because it’s scary not being close to family, but the borders opened about two weeks before flying, and I’m glad I came.”
Stöhr’s thankful attitude carried her through a heavily mandated, but in-person, freshmen year of college. Despite all the challenges, she was able to find positives.
“Doing intense workouts with a mask on last year was really difficult, especially inside the (Kibbie) dome,” said Stöhr. “It was also frustrating that we weren’t allowed to eat out (in restaurants) or leave the area because we would have to quarantine for a few days. But the freshmen became a lot closer because we spent more time in the dorms together. I’m glad how last year played out, and it gave me a bigger appreciation for normal times.”
COVID on campus: bringing teammates together
Close bonding with teammates during the odd year was also felt in women’s soccer. While the freshmen in track were able to spend more time together in dorms, the soccer newcomers were able to spend extra hours practicing with their upperclassmen teammates on the field. Julia Bailey credits that extra preparation to great team chemistry despite having a short spring season.
“COVID forced the team to have more trust in each other,” said the junior defender. “The four-week season in the spring (of 2021) felt short after training a whole year for it, but I think we had higher levels of accountability.”
Moving forward
As international athletes returned for the 2021-22 school year, they looked forward to college life without COIVD-19. The pandemic has not reached its end yet, but the Vandals agree that they feel much more freedom now than they did a year ago.
Stöhr mentioned that bringing back high-fives at practices (that no longer require masks) and having more competitions on the schedule made things feel more normal. Casino also said that having access to the Kibbie Dome’s tennis courts instead of seeing turf rolled on top of them made things more convenient this year when their alternative last winter was driving to Lewiston every day for practice.
These Vandals also agree that crossing international borders to compete and attend in-person school is worth the risk.
“Having an institution that values student athletes and accommodates to their busy schedules is a luxury I didn’t have in Australia,” Nunis said. “Also, being at Idaho is really important to me because getting a job in accounting is nearly impossible without a degree, and I’ve met so many great friends while being here.”
International athletes at Idaho have done great things in competition, but enduring COVID-19’s challenges might be their biggest win yet. They stayed focused, competed hard and even found their way home when all things seemed hopeless.
And if you can stay motivated while locked in a hotel room for two weeks, you can accomplish anything.
Shea Mattson can be reached at [email protected]