Ty Schultz, whose Olympics ended after four losses playing for China's ice hockey team, was nonetheless able to grasp an opportunity his grandmother could not due to the country's boycott of the 1956 Melbourne Games.
Born in Canada to a German father and Chinese mother and on the China team sheet as Zheng Enlai, Schultz is the grandson of high jumper Zheng Fengrong, who in 1957 was the first Chinese woman to break a world record.
Schultz, 24, was among 15 foreign-born players in a team whose tournament ended in a 7-2 loss to Canada.
He has spoken with his grandparents, who live in Beijing, every day during the Olympics. His grandmother, now 84, went to one game. "She saw us play that game against Germany, so that was pretty awesome - one of our better ones," Schultz said of winless China's best result in Beijing, a 3-2 defeat.
Schultz is not the family's first Chinese Olympian. His sister Nina Schultz competed in the heptathlon as Zheng Ninali during last summer's Tokyo Games, where she finished 10th, coached by their grandfather, Duan Qiyan.
"It's starting to feel a bit like a family business," Schultz said of the Olympics.
