This feature originally appeared in the 2021 Spring edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.



Mina Anglero's cell phone rang at 6 a.m. on March 16, 2020, waking her after a stressful night of sleep. A few days earlier, the NCAA had canceled spring sports competitions, and the world was beginning to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
 
On the other end of the phone was Mina's father, her "Pappa," Thomas. With the threat of the U.S. shutting down its border for international travel, Thomas, and Mina's mother, Camilla, had purchased their daughter a flight home to Norway. Mina had three hours to get from her apartment in Berkeley to San Francisco International Airport for a 9 a.m. departure to Oslo.
 
Two hours into the flight home, the border closed for international travel to and from the United States. Mina was on one of the last flights out.
 
One year ago, Mina Anglero was coming off a strong fall cross country season for Cal after finishing 22nd in the women's 6K race at the Pac-12 Championships with a new lifetime-best time of 20:21.6. She went on to finish 22nd again at the NCAA West Region Championships to earn U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Region honors, along with Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll recognition. 
 
Anglero was well on her way to continuing her success during the spring 2020 track & field season until she suffered an eight-millimeter split tendon stress fracture in both of her feet last Feb. 17. Even before the pandemic began and the season was canceled, that day started a new process – one that would take an entire year.
 
Running requires repetition and training over and over, constantly pushing the body to its limits. That was a notion Anglero eventually realized she took too far.
 
"After I got hurt I was down and having trouble staying to the course and the path I wanted to be on," Anglero said. "When COVID happened and I went home, I started to have a new perspective. I realized I had kept feelings of being burned out and not enjoying the process sitting just under the surface. I had lost my way."
 
Thomas has a long history of working hard to get to where he needed and wanted to be in his life. That made an impact on his daughter from an early age, and she saw the drive and determination needed to be successful.
 
Both of her grandparents on her father's side came to New York from Puerto Rico at a young age, and Thomas was born and raised on the Lower East Side. Her parents met during their college years at the Pratt Institute – her dad played basketball and her mother ran for the track & field team. Following graduation, they decided to buy plane tickets to Norway rather than to California, where Thomas was to start medical school.
 
Athletics made an impression on Mina as a young child. Basketball was her first love growing up in Oslo, and that led her to spend three years as a point guard on Norway's junior national basketball team.
 
She dreamed of playing college basketball, but she realized it was a long shot since Norway doesn't have a senior basketball program. So she began to run, taking the same path as her mother before her. Mina ran farther and faster, becoming a member of the Norwegian national track & field team in 2017. She took second place at 2017 senior nationals in the 800 meters and third place at the 2018 event.
 
It was then Mina realized she could turn her running ability into not only competing athletically at the next level, but receiving a top education. Her passion for running, determination to be successful and competitiveness got her into Cal and a spot on the track & field/cross country team.
 
When Mina suffered her injury in February of last year, followed by the onset of the pandemic, the passion and drive that propelled her to the highest level disappeared.
 
"When I got home in March, I was injured and I was burned out. I learned the difference from being burned out and over-trained," Anglero said. "When you're over trained, you at least still are motivated, but when you're burned out, that motivation goes away. From March until the summer, I laid low and then took a complete break during the summer."
 
The pandemic and uncertainty in America, along with lower positivity rates and rehab facilities being open in Norway, added more to the situation. Anglero considered quitting running altogether and staying home with all the uncertainty going on in the world. During the fall semester of studying from Oslo, long nights and early mornings were the norm. A psychology test at 3 a.m. local time further tested her will.
 
It wasn't until the week after Christmas that Anglero decided to ultimately return to Berkeley and continue her dream. She knew despite the frustrations and tough times, Cal is where her life is right now. It's where she is successful and it felt right.  
 
"Mina's incredible determination to get a full education experience from Cal and to be the absolute best athlete she can be is powerful to us as parents," Thomas said. "The pandemic wasn't going to stop her from fulfilling her need to be the best. As parents, it was difficult for us and at the same time very easy to let her go originally. One of our roles is to help her achieve her goals, no matter the cost - even if it meant we wouldn't see her for many months."
 
Mina arrived back in Berkeley on Jan. 11, almost 10 months after that morning when her phone rang and she rushed to the airport. The months of contemplation, rehab and relaxation provided the time to recoup and refresh.
 
One day short of the one-year anniversary of her injury, on Feb. 16, Anglero was able to return to practice with her teammates. She returned to action at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships on March 5, ending one journey back to competition and beginning another back towards the top.
 
"The fact I feel so good mentally and physically, so motivated, since I landed here in the U.S. from Norway - it felt so right to be here," Anglero said. "I know I did the right thing coming back and following my dreams."