Kelly Whitley was just a toddler when her paternal grandfather, Homer V. Whitley, died in 1995.

Seventeen years later, the Geneva graduate is reconnected to her grandfather in stirring fashion. On Saturday, Whitley learned that she was added to the May 11 World Triathlon Series race in San Diego, from which the third and final U.S. women’s triathlon qualifier for the 2012 London Olympics will advance.

That honor is all the more meaningful to Whitley considering her grandfather, Homer V. Whitley, swam in the Olympic Trials leading up to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.