During the on-going 2025 Torino Winter Universiade, American skier Samantha Paisley enjoyed many wonderful experiences, with a panda hat being one of the most unique gifts she received.
By sportswriters Shan Lei, Xu Shihao, Xiao Yazhuo
TURIN, Italy, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Samantha Paisley wore a panda hat to attend a party with her American teammates on Monday after the ski mountaineering competitions at the 2025 Torino Winter Universiade, and the hat was in every photo she posted on her social media account later.
The hat was all Paisley wanted after she found everyone of the Chinese delegation has one.
"Do you have an extra panda hat to share," she asked in Chinese every Chinese athlete, official or even reporter she met.
Finally, the Chinese delegation found one hat from the sportswear provider Qiaodan, and Chinese skier Liu Ruoxuan gave it to Paisley as a present.
"Wow! Oh my God! Yes! Xiexie," Paisley exclaimed when she received the present and didn't forget to say "Thank you" in Chinese.
She showed off her panda hat to her teammates and wore it all day.
"I learned Chinese when I was 12. We had Spanish, French and Chinese to learn at that time. I chose Chinese because my Chinese teacher always brought nice cookies to the class," said the 22-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Paisley went to a Chinese language summer camp in Forest Lake, Minnesota, for four years in a row since 2016, which was the reason she chose the majors of Chinese and Economy at University of Plymouth.
"Chinese doesn't translate directly (to English) and the grammar is so different. You have to teach when you're teaching it to yourself. It takes a lot of time because it's so foreign from English grammar and vocabulary," she added.
Paisley's passion of learning Chinese encouraged her young sister to learn Chinese too, and the pair likes to speak "secret language" at home when their parents don't know what they are talking about.
She started to learn ski mountaineering, which made its maiden appearance at the 2025 Torino Winter Universiade, when she saw a poster at a grocery store nine years ago.
"When I was in 8th grade, I was at a grocery store and saw a poster on the wall. It was this woman like running on this mountain and it was the like to attract people to go to this race and I was like dad, I gotta do that," she recalled.
Ski mountaineering was quite new to Americans when Paisley started to learn and now more and more kids know this sport.
"Ski mountaineering is super small in China and it's also pretty small in the United States. The Europeans dominate it. There were seven of us for a couple of years in my club. Now we have the biggest club team in the United States with over 40 kids," Paisley said.
In Plymouth, Paisley also joins rowing when she does not train skiing. "When I'm at school I'm able to train for ski mountaineering by doing volume with rowing. When I come back to Utah for winter break, I was able to train for rowing with ski mountaineering," she said.
In Turin, Paisley finished 8th in the mixed relay, which is her best international result. She also competed in the sprint and vertical races here. And the panda hat makes the Turin trip more satisfactory.
"I'm really excited and today should be fun," she said. ■