Cal Track and XC: Mina Anglero Rediscovers Her Passion At Home in Norway

* Latest in a series of periodic stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Cal athletes in different sports

Mina Marie Anglero is Cal’s top female track and field middle-distance and cross country runner. She is a 22-year-old senior from Oslo, Norway, who has remained at home in her country’s capital city since March 17, waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anglero, who plans to return to campus in January, says Norway has dealt fairly effectively with the virus, “fantastic compared to the U.S."

“That’s why I’ve chosen to stay here for this fall semester,” Anglero says. “(Training) facilities are open. We don’t have to wear masks wherever we go. We don’t have any wildfires. We don’t have any riots. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. So I feel extremely grateful.”

Still, it hasn’t been all perfect for Anglero. She had a psychology class exam one day last spring at 6 p.m. PDT, which works out to 3 a.m. in Oslo. She did OK on the test, but concedes. “My brain was not very well functioning at that time.”

Meanwhile, she was wearing a protective boot when she returned home because of a stress reaction in her foot, and also grew to realize she had lost some zeal for her sport.

“I found myself being very tired, low motivated. Not having that joy and enlightenment that I usually have,” Algero explains.

So she took a step back, began taking walks in nature and reaching out to old friends.

“It was nice to kind of calm down and feel like I actually landed here in Norway,” she says.

Her foot still isn’t entirely healthy, owing to a couple physical setbacks. She’s in rehab mode. “Again.”

But Anglero’s head is now in a better place, and the joy running brings her is returning, even if she still has to take it easy right now.

“And that is making me really happy,” she says, “because a I’ve been waiting for that for a long time.”

There is no track and field venue in Norway more prestigious than Bislett Stadium in Oslo. And there is no event in the sports more famous than the Bislett Games, where since 1924 at least 50 world records have been established.

Anglero not only has attended the Bislett Games, she has competed in the meet, as part of the schedule that includes young, promising athletes. She qualified through a 600-meter time trial four days before the meet in June of 2018, then ran a personal best in the 800.

“I remember that day as it if was yesterday,” she says, “because that was the best day and memory I’ve had during my track and field career. That was amazing.”

She talks in the video below about her experience competing in the stadium where Norwegian distance legends Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen also ran.

Before becoming a track athlete, Anglero played point guard three years on Norway’s junior national basketball team.

Her dream was to play college basketball, but that was a long shot. “Basketball is very down-prioritized here in Norway. There is no money, not a lot of attention,” she says.

She only transitioned to running because the country has no senior basketball program.

Anglero attends women’s and men’s basketball games at Cal, and the pangs of playing the game often return. “My heart says a little bit I would still be playing basketball because that was hard to give up.”

She talks in the video below about her love of hoops:

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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