Women spikers sizzle, coach makes history
Print Edition
HEAD held high as she took the court moments after her Chinese team entered the Maracanazinho arena, Jenny Lang Ping waved and smiled in several directions then paced around the floor observing China’s final opponents from Serbia.
She proudly sang through the national anthem, then guided her team to a come-from-behind gold — and made her own history, too.
Lang became the first person to win volleyball gold as a coach and player, her China team rallying from one-set down to defeat the upstart Serbians 19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 on Saturday night in the Rio championship match. It was China’s third gold. Only the Soviet Union — with four golds — has been more successful in Olympics women volleyball than China.
“It’s not important to me to make history,” Lang said. “I’m so happy for the young girls, they trained very hard.”
Early on in this tournament, Lang — who captured an Olympic title with the 1984 Chinese national team in Los Angeles then later spent a four-year stint coaching the Americans while China also won gold in 2004 — challenged her players to find ways to grow from their struggles with the world watching.
All along, she believed her emotional players had the talent and determination to compete with the top programs in the world.
And oh, did they show it. Once they found a groove.
China took a 23-22 lead in the fourth set when Zhu Ting’s kill sent Maja Ognjenovic to the floor with a hard ball to the face, and the match was over shortly thereafter. Lang raised both arms in the air and Yang Fangxu sprinted over to embrace her. Many more hugs followed.
The Chinese exhibited that same fire and fight a year ago while winning the World Cup in Japan, then got to Rio de Janeiro earlier this month and worked through some initial rough, inconsistent Olympic moments.
When the Chinese squad lost its Olympic opener in five sets to the Netherlands back on August 6, Lang challenged her players: to learn, to support one another through the ups and downs, to grow from each defeat and triumph on the Olympic stage.
China responded, and seemed to play better when the moments got bigger. “Before the tournament I never thought that we could win the gold,” Lang said. “I was thinking if we were lucky we could win a medal. You never know, our young players, at the beginning of the tournament we didn’t play well. But at important times, we were really lucky we played well.”
Lang’s group of women found its top level of volleyball over the recent days in Rio de Janeiro and spoiled things for a volleyball-crazed country in the process. China took down the two-time defending Olympic champion Brazilian women on their home turf in Tuesday’s quarterfinals to show this team had arrived —and, until Saturday night, that had been China’s shining moment.
The Chinese had much more fight still in them.
“With our young team you never know. One day great, one day not,” Lang said. “We just had to be patient.”
The United States won bronze after beating the Netherlands 25-23 25-27 25-22 25-19, a consolation for the world’s top-ranked team — which fell to Serbia in the semifinals — in its pursuit of an elusive gold.
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