Former UConn women’s basketball player Nika Mühl delivered one more assist for her college teammate Olivia Nelson-Ododa earlier this month, but this time, it had nothing to do with basketball.
Nelson-Ododa, now playing for the Connecticut Sun, was set to debut her beauty brand, Kayelise Beauty, at Paris Fashion Week.
But there was a problem—she plays in China during the WNBA offseason, and making the trip to France wasn’t possible.
That’s when she turned to Mühl, who was in her home country of Croatia. Paris was much closer, and Nelson-Ododa had one simple request: “Just get your butt in Paris and do the runway show, please and thank you.”
Mühl answered the call, stepping onto the runway in teal blue fashion to represent Kayelise Beauty, a brand inspired by the women in Nelson-Ododa’s life and their battles with ovarian cancer and reproductive health issues.
“Really how Kayelise came about was mixing my passion for fashion together with some like a cause with reproductive health that just means so much to me,” Nelson-Ododa said.
Despite missing the event in person, she found a way to be there. Mühl held up FaceTime as she walked the runway, allowing Nelson-Ododa to experience the moment in real-time.
“She held me up on FaceTime on the phone and it really hit me when people were clapping and cheering,” Nelson-Ododa said. “I could hear that through the phone and that’s when I started to get super emotional about it.”
