Lang Ping bringing back volleyball's golden age in China
As China claimed the gold medal in women's volleyball at the Rio Olympics over the weekend, the team's head coach Lang Ping was praised for her leadership that lifted China's volleyball out of a downturn.
Lang Ping, a well-known name in volleyball, has long been called the "Iron Hammer" in China, a nickname she picked up during her playing days some 3 decades ago.
She became a head coach in the Italian professional volleyball league, winning the league championship and coach-of-the-year award multiple times, after retiring from China's national volleyball team.
In 2008, she led the United States national women's volleyball team to silver in the Beijing Olympics.
In 2013, Lang returned to China to save the floundering Chinese women's volleyball team.
During an interview with CCTV, Lang Ping looked back on their path to the gold and admitted it was not smooth. "I think because, especially during the pool games, we did not play that well," she said. "So we couldn't think that far ahead. We just said okay, right now it's the quarterfinals, we still have a chance. Let's play real volleyball. Forget about the pressure, forget about the result. Just go ahead and concentrate on the game."
"And then we did it. It was like a miracle," said Lang.
Team China started its campaign with losses against the Netherlands, Serbia and the U.S.
However, the squad managed to finish 4th in the qualifiers, which was good enough to get them into the quarterfinals where they upset defending Olympic champions Brazil.
The victory provided stimulus that beefed up the team's confidence.
"I couldn't believe that we beat the former champion, Brazil. That game really encouraged us," Lang said.
And after getting through the Netherlands and into the final, Lang Ping told her players to try to shake off their previous results and just play "in the moment."
"I think because for both teams, we had a 50 percent chance. The result you can't really think of. You have to concentrate for the game," said Lang. "Because all the teams are the best. So it's going to be really, really hard to beat them, especially at the pool game we lost to Serbia like 3:0. So we had to concentrate to play every point. I think we were also very lucky win two points by set. It's very unusual. I think I'm very thrilled."
In helping lead her squad to victory, Lang Ping has become the first person to win an Olympic volleyball medal as both a coach and a player.
Back in 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics, she and her teammates helped China to snatch the country's first Olympic gold in volleyball.
Since then, the Chinese women's volleyball team has been set up as a flagship among all Chinese sports teams for their tenacity and fighting spirit.
Their influence is still here: a survey shows that 7 out of 10 homes in China were watching the Olympic final for women's volleyball live on Sunday.
In the post-match interview in Rio,
Lang Ping said "the spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team is to never give up. My duty as the coach is to guide this young team to carry on this spirit."
But, at the same time, she also stressed that "spirit alone will not bring victories. We also need scientific training and management systems."
After returning to the Chinese national team, Lang Ping took a number of bold moves to reform the team, including hiring kinesiotherapists from the U.S. and hand-picking inexperienced but young players.
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lol, volleyball final got higher audience rating hen Spring Festival Gala 
Why do Chinese love their women's volleyball team so much
When Chinese women's volleyball team took on Serbia for the Olympic title, 70 percent of Chinese families watched live broadcast on TV, easily beating the audience rating for Lunar New Year Gala.
As team captain Hui Ruoqi hit a powerful spike to seal it 19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 Saturday night in Rio, applause and cheers almost blew off the roof of Maracanazinho, which is at the side of the iconic Maracana stadium.
Media headlines hailed the victory that brought the Chinese women volleyball back to the Olympic glory after 12 years, paying tribute to legendary head coach Jenny Lang Ping and her 12 players. China's all-important news program Xinwen Lianbo dedicated seven of 30 minutes to relive the story.
"This team has an average age of 24. You can beat them, but you can never break them," said the presenter.
"Thank you Lang Ping for giving us a miracle," said a post on China's top portal Sina.com. Like the Brazilians who eventually won most coveted soccer gold medal, the volleyball title ensured a perfect ending for the Chinese delegation. The team started as underdogs and ended up as champions.
Pushed to the fourth place in group, China met the powerful and two-time Olympic champions Brazil who had unreserved support from capacity home fans in the quarterfinals.
When almost no one believed they could win, the Chinese team came rallied from one set down to beat the hosts 3-2 before they avenged their group loss on the Netherlands in the semifinals.
Among all the Chinese sports teams, the women's volleyball remain the most special one, whose victories had fueled Chinese confidence in the 1980s and still represent the best things that sports can offer to the Chinese: perseverance, courage and unity.
In her playing days, Lang Ping was the embodiment of the "Chinese women's volleyball spirit" as she, dubbed Iron Hammer for her cannon spikes, along with her teammates, won a volleyball grand slam of Olympic Games, World Cup, and world championship in the 1980s when China just started to reform and open up.
They endured extremely arduous training and displayed "never say die" spirit en route to becoming world champions, which made the Chinese believe the country, recovering from political turmoils at that time, could be as strong in the world one day as the volleyball players are in sports.
After over 30 years of reform and opening up nowadays, China believes the "women's volleyball spirit" is never outdated.
"My mom cried when I told her about Lang Ping's team's victory in Rio. She recalled her young days and said Lang was a great player. Now she is a great coach," wrote an internet user.
"My father leapt in the air when China won. He told me with tears in his eyes that great spirit has been with the Chinese volleyball team for years," wrote another.
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