CHASING THE OLYMPIC DREAM
A couple of buddies from China uprooted their lives to get a hockey education in Toronto
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The goaltender for Team China at the IIHF under-20 Division 3 world championship glanced at the score clock. His team, up 5-1 on Australia in the gold-medal game in Iceland, was mere moments from victory. Forty seconds away, in fact. A lifelong dream was about to be realized for Wu, a goaltender who calls both Canada and China home, depending on the time of year.
As the ensuing wild celebration inched closer, his thoughts peacefully turned to his childhood friend and teammate Eddie Yan.
“There was a whistle and I honestly just prayed that he would be on for the final buzzer,” Wu said of the momentous moment earlier this month. “A bit of me knew he would be the first one to come over and hug me. It came true. He was the closest one to me and when the buzzer sounded he just threw everything and just came over and gave me a big hug.”
Added Yan, who had the puck on his stick as the horn sounded: “We just kind of looked at each other. And then I hugged him.”
The tournament win meant everything to China as the nation will now advance to Division 2 Group B for 2020 — an important step for the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, which is in the midst of a push to rapidly improve its hockey program ahead of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
It meant something else entirely for Wu and Yan, the tournament’s top respective goalie and player statistically. Having shared a unique hockey journey — they both left China to chase their hockey dreams in the sticks and skates hotbed of Toronto a decade ago, though separately — it was the kind of full-circle moment that simply couldn’t be denied. The childhood friends departed Beijing a year apart from each another, landing in Toronto to begin a years-long span in the Greater Toronto Hockey League that, due to a one-year age difference, never saw them as teammates in Toronto. Years later, here they were in Reykjavik, winning a title while representing their home country of China, where they last played together as youngsters.
“We just talked about how crazy and special it is. We left at the same time, or around the same time, from China and we didn’t play together,” said the 18-yearold Yan, a forward who is in his first year playing for the junior A Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League. “And here we are 10 years later at the national team, representing our country.”
Wu, a midget triple-A goaltender who has been with the Toronto Young Nationals program for the last eight seasons, helped his team reach the prestigious Telus Cup national midget championship last season, but winning a championship with China meant something else altogether.
“You’re representing your own country. Any time, that’s going to be very exciting. Winning the championship for your home country, that just puts an exclamation mark on the whole thing,” the 17-yearold said. “I’m born in China, I lived there for 10 years and at the end of the day it’s my home country. It’s definitely still home for me.”
How, then, do a couple of kids from China — a nation where racket sports, soccer, swimming and basketball are widespread, but hockey, while growing in popularity, is not — wind up not only playing hockey, but excelling at it in Canada, some 10,000 kilometres away from home?
With a chance introduction followed by a new-found passion and a roll-of-the-dice family decision.
Wu remembers walking home one day in Beijing when he was five years old. He ran into his aunt, who was taking his cousin to one of the few public skating rinks in the city and asked if he’d like to join. He said yes and immediately loved everything about being on skates. Yan’s sister was in figure skating, so he would often go to her practices. Eventually, he laced up his own skates and “fell in love with it right away.”
Yan was the first to sign up and Wu, whose parents are close friends with Yan’s, followed suit.
“Because of him, I started playing, too. We played on the same team and we pretty much won every tournament that we played in,” said Wu, while both noted there were only about 200 kids playing hockey in Beijing at that time.
When Yan eventually left for Toronto with his parents, he remembers clutching a DVD commemorating the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Stanley Cup-winning season in 2008-09.
“I’ve probably watched it 30 times. Sidney Crosby is my idol,” said Yan, who upon arriving in Canada’s most populated city landed a spot with the Toronto Marlboros, where he spent five seasons of his GTHL career which also included time with the Don Mills Flyers and Young Nats. He was then a late-round draft pick of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves, but didn’t suit up in the Nickel City.
Neither player recalled thinking too much about the fact that moving to Canada to play hockey was a big and bold move. They were just kids after all and they loved hockey. As long as they could continue playing hockey, all good.
“We weren’t really thinking about 10 years down the road that I could be playing for Team China,” Wu said. “I think at the time my parents (Baohong and Yan Quin Yan) thought it was just a very cool experience to try out. Me being 10 years old, I kind of just went along with it, but at the same time I thought it was going to be a cool experience.”
The transition from one country to another had its obstacles. For one, Wu didn’t speak any English when he first arrived, but he recalled his teammates and coaches being supportive and he hasn’t forgotten his dad’s encouraging message before his first game in Canada — a 3-2 win over the North York Rangers during his one-year stint with the Toronto Red Wings.
“Don’t worry about the outcome. Just play your best. That’s all we ask for. Go out there, have fun, play your best,” Wu said, re-telling what his dad told him.
Today, both players speak fluent English. Wu operates what might seem like a small business of sorts with all matters pertaining to his hockey career going directly through him, as his mom doesn’t speak English and his dad stays back in Beijing to run a restaurant. Wu returns home to China each summer.
“With all the hockey transfer documents and things like that, I’m always the one filling them out, looking over them and translating it to my mom so that she knows what’s going on,” Wu said.
Both players are looking to develop in the junior ranks for the next few years with an eye on representing China at the 2022 Winter Games. Wu is also thinking about the possibility of one day joining the Kunlun Red Star, a Chinese club in the KHL.
All in all, it has been quite a run for a couple of kids from Beijing who grew up with few, if any, hockey idols as youngsters — NHL games were never televised there — but have since excelled in the sport on Canadian soil. Wu has since latched onto Canadiens goaltender Carey Price for inspiration, while Yan continues to follow Crosby’s every move.
“I know 100 per cent if I never played hockey I would still be back in China right now and we wouldn’t be having this talk,” Wu said. “Hockey definitely made me a better person.”
Because of him, I started playing, too. We played on the same team and we pretty much won every tournament that we played in.