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Volleyball 30/05/2014

With a lot of experience and young players

China’s hopes for the 2014 FIVB World Championship
rely on the famous national coach and legend Lang Ping and her young players.

Lang Ping has got the status of a national hero in
China; the former national player of the “Land of the Middle” is one of the
most successful volleyball players and coaches in the world. So it’s no
surprise that Lang Ping is a hero and idol for a lot of volleyball fans around
the world.

“Iron Hammer” Lang Ping, how she was called during
her professional career as national player, won FIVB Women’s World Championship
Gold in 1982 and Olympic Gold in 1984. After her retirement as professional
volleyball player, Lang started a career as coach in the USA, returned,
however, to China as national coach in 1995 – and won the Silver Medal at the
Olympic Games in Atlanta one year afterwards. After having claimed the Silver
Medal at the 1998 FIVB World Championship in Japan, Ping resigned because of
health reasons. The Chinese legend started to coach on club level in Italy in
1999 and won titles and awards with her team.

In 2005, Lang Ping came back to international
volleyball, this time not for China but the United States of America. The
Chinese legend even were standing on the side-line during the Olympic Games in
her hometown Beijing – and defeated her home nation China in the opening game
by 3-2. The US team under Lang Ping’s direction, however, lost the final game
against Brazil.

In 2013, Lang Ping returned to her home nation
China – a special moment for every Chinese volleyball fan as the former Chinese
national player has got the status as a national sports hero. The Chinese pin
all their hopes on “Jenny”, how some people call Lang Ping.

The 53 years old wants to bring the East
Asians back onto the top of international volleyball – and relies on the next
generation in China: Young players, like captain Hui Ruoqi, get the opportunity
to play in the national team and get experience. “We’ve got really young
players in our roster and need some time as team. We are still a little bit
tired as the break between club and international competitions was really
short”, Lang says.
Nevertheless, the Chinese is sure that the team
will have enough time as there are some big tournaments before the event of the
year, The FIVB Women’s World Championship in Italy: “We’ve got the Asian
Championship and the World Grand Prix. These events will be very important for
us, as we need enough time to practice and work with the young kids.” As
consequence, the Chinese legend doesn’t want to fixed goal for the 2014 FIVB
Women’s World Championship in September/ October: “The big majority of our
players have got no experience of playing at World Championships, that’s the
reason why we want to take it step by step and play our best.”

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