University of Georgia Athletics
Not Home For The Holidays
December 24, 2016 | Women's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Georgia decathlete Karl Saluri won't be back home in Kuimetsa, Estonia, for Christmas, but he'll be experiencing the next best thing: spending the holiday with his longtime girlfriend, Gymdog Morgan Reynolds, an Athens native, and her family.
For some Georgia athletes, especially those from other countries, going home for the holidays isn't an option, either because of expense or time.
This is the third straight Christmas that Saluri is spending in Athens. The first, in 2014 after he transferred to Georgia from the University of New Orleans, it was just Saluri and his roommate, longtime friend and fellow Estonian, Maicel Uibo.
"The first one was tougher because it was only me and Maicel," Saluri said. "I didn't have a girlfriend, he didn't have a girlfriend and [laughs] we didn't have a Christmas tree, so we got a white piece of paper, Maicel did it, and he drew a Christmas tree on the paper and put it on the wall.
"For fun we gave Christmas presents to each other and put them under the piece of paper."
Saluri and Uibo, who both represented Estonia in the decathlon during the Rio Olympics, have come a long way since that first, semi-lonely Christmas. Saluri will spend his second straight Christmas with Reynolds and her family, while Uibo is in the Bahamas with his fiancee, former Georgia 400-meter star Shaunae Miller, who won a gold medal in Rio.
"People may think, aww, he's staying here, but I don't feel like I'm not home. I enjoy being with Morgan and her family, said Saluri, who was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday and hoped to be recuperated and full of holiday cheer by Sunday.
Christmas in Athens is a bit different than what Saluri is used to, and the same could likely be said for all the Bulldogs from other countries. In Estonia, he said, each person typically has one gift waiting for them under the tree. He said he was quite surprised at the amount of gift-giving he encountered a year ago.
"Last year I was surprised," he said. "I was at Morgan's mom's house and there was so much stuff, I was like: 'Wow, take it easy,now.' [laughs] I'm not used to it."
Of course there's often snow around Christmas at home, as well. The forecast for Sunday in Kuimetsa is a high in the mid 30s, while Athens features a high around 70 degrees. Break out the shorts, not the down jackets.
For track and field jumper Aliyah Johnson, from Brisbane, Australia, pretty much every Christmas features shorts weather. It's summer in the southern hemisphere and it will be in the high 20s back home, but that's Celsius — it will be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
She'll have equally good training weather here, it appears, and Johnson is staying in Athens to train with head coach Petros Kyprianou.
"I have family in the U.S., but rather than go see them [in Alabama, as she did at Thanksgiving], I'd capitalize on having Petros still in Athens and try to maximize the practice time I can get with him," said Johnson, who finished 10th in the triple jump in the NCAA Championships last spring.
One benefit of modern technology is that Johnson will at least be able to see her mom on Christmas, using FaceTime. Women's basketball guard Simone Costa, from Lisbon, Portugal, also will FaceTime with family, while teammate Bianca Blanaru, a redshirting forward from Timisoara, Romania, said she will use Skype.
"I'm so thankful for that, it makes things so much easier," said Blanaru, who is sitting out this season after transferring from Washington State.
Blanaru said she'll be in Athens over the holiday, mostly taking it easy and catching up on some sleep. Costa said she's meeting up in Atlanta with some fellow Portuguese student-athletes in the area and spending the day with them.
This is the third Christmas away from home for Saluri, Johnson, Costa and Blanaru, who all said their first was much tougher to get through.
"That first year it was really depressing," Costa said. "Now I'm kind of used to it, but I still miss my family, obviously, especially during this season."
Women's basketball point guard Haley Clark said she was heading home to Orlando, Fla., right after Thursday's game and will come back Monday. It's a quick trip but she's grateful for the chance to be with her family at Christmas.
"It's usually just a lot of family: my aunts and uncles usually come over, my little cousins usually come over and people are usually in and out throughout the day," she said.
Asked if she has ever been away from her family at Christmas, Clark said she hadn't.
"I can't imagine that," she said.
But for some international student-athletes, going home isn't an option or isn't practical, so they're here making the best of it, one way or another. Saluri did say that he'll miss having a white Christmas, which is a regular occurrence in Estonia and clearly isn't happening in Athens this year.
"There's no snow, and that makes me sad," he said. "To me, Christmas without snow doesn't feel like Christmas."
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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