Guild partnership with Team USA helps athlete plan for what’s next
Ashley Farquharson represented Team USA in the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022 and is a hopeful for the next Olympic Games, Milano Cortina 2026. She’s also begun her bachelor’s degree in business administration with Purdue Global. (Purdue Global photo/John Underwood)
U.S. Olympian Ashley Farquharson is bringing balance to life now — and structure to her future — with a Purdue Global degree.
U.S. Olympic luge slider Ashley Farquharson is passionate about opportunity.
Because when it comes to falling in love with a sport that’s a little lesser known, it’s not always easy to try it out, even if you did grow up in Park City, Utah — known as home to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2002.
Farquharson says winter sports can be challenging for families to access because of rising costs, climate and other obstacles. She was able to connect with luge through the Youth Sports Alliance, a community nonprofit whose purpose is to connect world-class venues to the locals and give anyone a chance to try winter sports.
And she says, in a family of entrepreneurs, finding a passion was important. So, when it came to extracurriculars, they started by casting a wide net.
“I did every rec sport possible,” she says. “There was always an after-school activity, and I just pretty much did that until I found something I really loved.”
And in a single slide down the track, she was hooked.
Now having secured 12th and 7th place finishes at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 (singles and team relay, respectively) and preparing to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, Farquharson’s looking to explore many opportunities. Thanks to the partnership between Guild and Team USA Learning Network that’s designated Purdue Global as the preferred online degree provider for Team USA, Farquharson can pursue her next dream with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Education on the road
Back when she was a senior in high school, two potential paths started to form.
She had been playing softball, so she saw an opportunity to go to college on a softball scholarship. On the other hand, she was invited to the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. Fortunately for her, her family has always been willing to think outside the box when it comes to education.
Her parents, who own a thriving catering company in Park City, encouraged her to consider which sport she loved more.
“I remember my mom telling me not to pick softball if it was because I felt an obligation to go to college. I was also thinking about forgoing college altogether and pursuing luge. I knew that if I went the luge route, I would probably get to college eventually, but it would definitely be a harder path to get an education,” she says.
Her grandpa, however, pointed out that choosing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she had in luge was not a choice against education.
(My grandpa) would always tell me, ‘Don’t let your education get in the way of your education.’
Ashley Farquharson BS business, Purdue Global
U.S. Olympic luge slider
“He would always tell me, ‘Don’t let your education get in the way of your education,’” she says.
And that statement crystallized the view like nothing else could. Two weeks after her high school graduation, she moved to Lake Placid to begin training. And the last seven years have been a kind of education that few get to have.
“I’ve gotten to spend so much time in different places in Europe — places I probably never would have gotten to see. One of my coaches was a huge World War II history buff, so we went to places that were significant in history,” she says. “And I’ve learned how important it is to be immersed in a different culture and feel uncomfortable there.”
The travel was just one component of her experiential education. Through elite athlete training, she’s disciplined her mind in a way that gives a unique perspective on some of the most foundational struggles we face as humans.
“People always ask, ‘How do you stay so motivated? How do you keep going when it gets hard?’ And it’s not motivation,” she says. “I’m usually motivated for the month of May, when I’m fresh off my break. But by the time August or September rolls around, I’m tired. I’m not motivated. It comes down to discipline. It’s going to sound silly, but you just do it. There’s not a trick; you don’t trick yourself into being excited.
“You just do it not excited.”
Training the whole person
Farquharson believes that bringing that perspective to other areas of life will make her a successful student, and building up those other areas of her life has become more important to her as she’s progressed into her sport.
“I’ve worked really hard over the last five years or so to separate who I am from my sport, and I think it’s important to talk about,” she says. “It’s something I actually had to unlearn and recognize that I am more than just my sport. Even though it’s my full-time job and a huge part of my life, it’s not the only thing that defines me.”
And Farquharson defines herself by a lot of things — family, friends and hobbies, to name a few.
“I’ve started getting back into hobbies that I stopped when I moved here and started training,” she says. “When I got out of high school, I just moved and I jumped into my athletic career and that was it. That was all I was thinking about. Now I’m setting myself up for the future.”
On top of becoming skilled with a crochet hook and starting a book club with her teammates, she’s gotten back to her roots by spending more time in the kitchen. And as she worked to introduce more balance, that’s when she got the email announcing Team USA’s partnership with Guild. Immediately, she worked on the selection process.
“I chose Purdue Global because it seemed to be the most flexible,” she says. “The time commitment is up to you and the workload is manageable.”
So even though she doesn’t yet have a plan mapped out for the future, the timing for this opportunity with Purdue Global couldn’t be better. As she did as a kid, Farquharson has decided to cast her net wide.
Opportunity to find and chase new dreams
Although she has never regretted her choice to pursue experience as education, the when and how of her “someday” degree has always been a source of anxiety.
“It’s at least an immediate sense of relief that I don’t have to think about or decide things anymore regarding my education,” she says. “And I’m going in with an attitude that I can’t let it get past me. I can’t let an opportunity for a free education go.”
She’s finishing her first term as a business student now. And although the big decisions on what she wants to do with the degree are still to be made, the possibilities are exciting.
“I’ve thought about helping my older brother with the business. I’ve thought about becoming a lawyer. I’ve thought about becoming a coach. I even thought about becoming a sled tech, but when I asked my mom what she thought about choosing an engineering program, she told me, ‘Ashley, you hate math,’” she says laughing.
“Even just within the luge organization, though,” she continues, “if I can do anything to help grow the sport. I’ve also thought about working with Youth Sports Alliance because it gave me so much help throughout my career and it does a really good job making sure the kids in Park City get access to the facilities.”
Already, the passion that got her involved in luge to begin with is coming through in her assignments.
“I’m writing a paper now on building walkable neighborhoods. The studies show that if the facilities are there, people will use them. People want to use them. They’re discouraged from sport by not having access to them. It can create this mental barrier of thinking that you don’t belong there, that it’s not for you. But it’s really just circumstances,” she says.
Whatever the future holds for Farquharson — whether it’s Olympic medals or making a difference in young lives or anything and everything in between — she’s excited for this step.
“If you want a career change or if you want more upward mobility in your career, or if you want answers to questions that other people don’t seem to have, then going back to school is the best thing you can do for yourself,” she says. “A lot of people think that it’s not their place or like the moment has passed. But that is literally not real. It doesn’t matter if you’re 18 and you’re choosing to go to school, or you’re 25 or you’re 40 or 60. If there’s something you want to know, just do it.
“It’s never too late, and it’s never too little. One step is still a step.”
It’s never too late, and it;s never too little. One step is still a step.
Ashley Farquharson
BS business, Purdue Global
U.S. Olympic luge slider
