For Washington University sophomore Molly Harrison, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade represents one of the biggest yearly gatherings of people like her—competitive jump ropers, that is.

For the past 10 years, Harrison has been a member of the Bainbridge Island Rope Skippers, a competitive rope skipping team of 20 on the suburban Bainbridge Island near Seattle. She originally got involved in fourth grade, when the already-established team would come to her elementary school to teach routines for fun on half days—it piqued her interest enough to join the team and start competing.

This year, for the second time, Harrison has been invited to perform a jump rope routine as part of the parade along with more than 200 other jumpers from around the country; 45 states are represented in this year’s group of jumpers. She will also be a part of the group of 72 jumpers who will perform a more complicated routine in Herald Square, jumping in what will be one of the world’s largest performances of synchronized jump roping.

Harrison explained that the small jump rope community is isolated to certain areas. There is only one other team in Seattle, and the next-closest is in Idaho, which makes it difficult to meet other jumpers. “When you do get together, it’s a very supportive community,” Harrison said of her fellow jumpers, who enjoy inventing and teaching each other new jump roping tricks. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade represents an opportunity for this community of jumpers to gather.

One of the other places they meet every year is at the U.S. National Jump Rope Championship, at which jumpers can compete in a variety of different routines. The Bainbridge Rope Skippers have had multiple jumpers make it to the top three in past years. While some routines are judged for speed, the ones Harrison prefers are the Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle competitions, in which competitors are judged for content and presentation. Typically, the first day at these competitions is done without music while the second is synchronized to music. According to Harrison, “most people have never seen [jump roping] done competitively…[and are] surprised that it’s as competitive as it is.”

To prepare for three miles of nonstop jumping, Harrison has been jumping around the track on Francis Field in her free time while also balancing the academic rigor of chemical engineering and being a member of Alpha Chi Sigma, the chemistry fraternity on campus. When she isn’t at school, Harrison can be found at home coaching the younger jumpers—the youngest of whom is in fifth grade—an activity that she has enjoyed since she stopped competing at the start of college. Even though her days of competing are over due to St. Louis lacking a strong presence of jump ropers, Harrison said she will continue coaching and pushing her team’s “overall goal to make [jump roping] an Olympic sport.”

Students can catch Harrison jump roping this Thanksgiving, Nov. 28 on NBC from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. CST or on the online live stream.