Nina Schultz

Zheng Ninali 郑妮娜力

Personal information
Birth name	Nina Li Schultz
Nationality	Chinese
Born	(1998-11-12) November 12, 1998 New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	62 kg (137 lb)
Sport
Sport	Track
Event(s)	Heptathlon Pentathlon
College team	Kansas State University University of Georgia
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Heptathlon: 6358, Arona, Spain, 2021 Pentathlon: 4502, Lubbock, 2018
Medal record Representing Canada Commonwealth Games 2018 Gold Coast Heptathlon

Nina Schultz (Chinese: 郑妮娜力; pinyin: Zhèng Nīnàlì; born 12 November 1998), is a Chinese track athlete who competes in the heptathlon and pentathlon. She was a Canadian citizen at birth and previously competed for Canada.

Career

Schultz began training in athletics from a young age, and set a junior record in the indoor pentathlon in 2017 prior to being accepted to Kansas State University on a track scholarship. In her debut season in university athletics, Schultz won the bronze medal in the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships' pentathlon event. At the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships, she won the silver medal. At the 2018 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships she placed 7th in the Heptathlon scoring 5,778 points.

Schultz competed as part of the Canadian team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia. She was the youngest member of the Canadian track and field team. In the heptathlon event, she set a new personal best of 6133 points and won the silver medal, finishing 122 points behind gold medalist Katarina Johnson-Thompson of England.

Schultz returned to the competitive scene in 2021 under the Chinese flag to increase her personal best by over 200 points at the Spanish leg of the World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events. The athlete, now competing as Ninali Zheng, won the meeting with a score of 6358 which moved her into qualification for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Change of Citizenship from Canada to China

Schultz became one of a handful of Naturalized athletes of China; World Athletics confirmed her eligibility to be a competing member of China's national team on 12 April, 2021, after having renounced her Canadian citizenship and acquired Chinese citizenship by naturalization. The move came at a time of deteriorating China-Canada international relations and was met with some shock in Canada. Schultz did not provide a comment to Canadian media in regard to the change but did comment to a Chinese newspaper that "I came here not out of a sudden impulse, but because I always wanted to fulfill my grandmother’s dream." At the same time Schultz stopped competing for her NCAA Kansas State University and University of Georgia college teams. She had told Petros Kyprianou, her Georgia team coach that "she just wanted to move on from the NCAA and be a professional athlete. That’s all [he knew].”

The Chinese press quoted her maternal grandmother Zheng Fengrong, who in 1957 set the Women's World Record in High Jump 1.77m and is a celebrated athlete in China. Her brother Ty Zheng Enlai is a hockey player in Canada.