Grace Zhan got her introduction to China's national team as a 9-year-old fan. Nearly a decade later she's backstopping China at the 2024 IIHF World Championships.
Grace Zhan got her introduction to China's national team as a 9-year-old fan. Nearly a decade later she's backstopping China at the 2024 IIHF World Championships.
In 2015, Grace Zhan walked into the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing to see Team China play at the Division IB World Championships.
Then 9-years-old, Zhan has come a long way. From Beijing, where she was born, the now 18-year-old stepped between the pipes for the first time wearing a Team China jersey. In her first start for China in the top division of the 2024 IIHF World Championships in Utica, New York, Zhan made 50 saves to beat Japan 3-2 in a shootout.
It was a spectacular debut. But her story started at that 2015 tournament when the young Zhan was just a fan. In fact, the player she was excited to meet and get her photo taken with at that tournament was Baiwei Yu, who has served as China's captain since 2012. To bring it full circle, Yu remains China's captain today, defending in front of Zhan.
"I met my current captain there (in 2015) and then I was such a fan girl and then I took a picture with her and got her signature and everything," recalls Zhan. "Just today being by her side and then she's cheering me up, I'm cheering her up on the ice instead of in the stands, that just means so much to me."
From Division IB, to Division IA, and now into the top division of the World Championships, Yu has been there for it all, and Zhan is now stepping onto the ice with China to carry the national program forward.
Zhan came to North America where she's backstopped Hill-Murray School, and next year will join Dartmouth College in the NCAA. She knows the time for China's veterans, players like Baiwei Yu is coming to an end, and it will be up to her generation to carry the sport forward, and become role models for China's next wave of women's hockey players.
"I would say I'm an example of how this generation of Chinese hockey has grown...us younger girls we have to step it up and then it will be us in the future and then just learning so much stuff from them is like it's very valuable and we appreciate them so so much and they've paved the way for us and for us to have this opportunity in this top division this year."
Zhan is one of eight teenagers on China's current roster who will be counted upon in the future. Next season as Zhan steps into the NCAA with Dartmouth, she also hopes to inspire other Asian girls of any nationality and background, and in particular young Chinese players, to chase their dreams, and step out into the world.
"It's really awesome that more Asian and Chinese players get to go into NCAA and then especially into Division I to play hockey, and that I...can become a role model for the future generations in China," said Zhan. "Especially for the younger girls on my team... I've been telling them to be courageous and take that step out to explore the world and see what you can do."