An Olympic Legacy

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Jimmy's grandfather, Jack Shea, won two speed-skating gold medals at 1932 Games, which were held at Lake Placid. The elder Shea was the gold-medal favorite four years later when he decided to boycott the Olympics. Even though he was a Catholic, it was important for him to take a stand against the growing anti-Semitism in Hitler's Germany.

"This area has a large summer Jewish community," explains his son, Jim Sr., who was a cross-country skier and competed in three events at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck, Austria. "Dad got to know a lot of them because they shopped at his father's store, the old Shea's Market. They were his friends. So, when the local rabbi urged him not to go, it made sense to him.

"You could call it a moral decision. Dad knew what was going on in the world through his studies at Dartmouth. He didn't want to compete in Nazi Germany. He's talked with Jimmy a lot about what went into that decision. How you're always a citizen of the world."

When Jimmy made this year's Olympic team, he says, you could see the excitement in his grandfather's eyes.

"That was the best," Jimmy says. "He said, 'You made it. I'm so proud of you. We're going to the Olympics.'"

But just 18 days after Jack Shea was honored as the oldest living U.S. Winter Olympic gold medalist, the 91-year-old died from injuries suffered in a car accident. His vehicle was struck head-on only a few blocks from his home in Lake Placid. The driver of the other car was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.

"It was tough because he got out of the car, had a bump on his head and seemed OK at the time," Jimmy told the Associated Press. "Then he just kept saying, 'I think I messed up the Olympics. I really want to go to the Olympics.' He was really living for that."

The trio is featured in a current Sprint commercial, which continues to air, and was slated to be one of the Games' better "up close and personals." For his Olympic runs in skeleton, Jimmy Shea will tuck an autographed commemorative card of his grandfather into his helmet.

"My grandfather used to dream about me competing in the Olympics," he said in a statement released by the U.S. Olympic Committee. "When I qualified for the Games, he could not have been more proud. He knew better than most the importance of the Games. (He) always felt it was not who won the gold; it was truly about bringing the world together in a peaceful setting."