Critical moments in Lang Ping’s career as spiker, coach
The Chinese women's volleyball team swept Argentina 3-0 on Aug. 2, concluding their matches in Tokyo. The next day, Lang Ping, head of the Chinese team noted again she would probably quit from the post after Tokyo 2020, according to Xinhua news.
Over her four-decade career with volleyball, Lang Ping, better known as “iron hammer” for her outstanding role as a spiker, has gone through ups and downs. When asked about the sporting spirit of Chinese women's volleyball team, Lang said the Chinese volleyballers’ spirit is not to win the championship, but to try their best even knowing they won’t win at times.
“Iron hammer” of the national team
Lang Ping was born in Wuqing district, north China’s Tianjin city, in 1960, when the country was getting through a harsh period of widespread famine. Although her father was a policeman and her mother worked in a hotel, Lang and her senior sister did not have enough to eat back then.
In spite of material scarcity, Lang Ping grew to be nearly 1.7 meters upon entering a junior high school in Beijing. However, the basketball teacher thought she was not strong enough, and the football teacher believed she was too tall to be flexible, so Lang picked up volleyball at the children’s sports school attached to Beijing Workers' Gymnasium.
Having gone through a lot of basic training, Lang improved her physical fitness. In 1974, 14-year-old Lang Ping was selected into the volleyball training class of Beijing No.2 Sports School.
Within five years of volleyball training, Lang was 1.83 meters tall at the age of 18, and the amazing armspan allowed her reach 3.24 meters -- a height that went well beyond many professional athletes.
Perhaps by chance, Lang Ping’s play was caught sight of by Yuan Weimin, the then head coach of Chinese women's volleyball team. Later, Yuan discovered that Lang was not only gifted, calm and humble, but also down-to-earth and strong willed. On the whole, she impressed Yuan a lot.
In 1978, Yuan Weimin directly selected 18-year-old Lang Ping to the China women's volleyball team. Shortly after Lang entered the team, she was told to play the key role. Yuan took Lang as a piece of “rough jade”, which needs to be honed by competitions of high caliber.
One night in November, 1981, Chinese folks were staying in front of the black and white TV sets, watching the final between China and Japan in the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup.
It was a critical moment when the China women's volleyball team was moving closest to the title. Everyone held their breath to expect that moment of miracle. However, trends on the volleyball field changed rapidly, and no one could put a judgment until the last seconds.
In the end, Lang Ping secured the championship for China with a hard spike, and the Chinese dream came true in cheers and tears nationwide.
As the key player sweeping the Japanese team, Lang Ping was also recognized as one of the world's top spikers. Since then, the Chinese "iron hammer" has been well-known in international volleyball circles.
Controversial coaching in the US
In 1986, 26-year-old Lang Ping married with male volleyball player Bai Fan, and then they decided to go to the United States to study at their own expenses.
Without aid from scholarships, Lang Ping had to earn the tuition by serving as a volleyball coach at universities. When she was pursuing her master degree in physical education in the University of New Mexico, Lang Ping even coached the Italian Modena Club to earn the schooling fee.
As the head coach of Modena, Lang Ping led the club in winning the Italian championship in 1989. Liang Mai, a CCTV director, filmed Lang for a long time and witnessed quite a few stages of her coaching career.
“Italian volleyball players were of advanced skills. The team led by Lang won titles of the Italian League and the European Champions League, and she also trained a world-class volleyball coach,” said Liang.
She then served as head coach of the women's volleyball team of the University of New Mexico and led the team to the championship of the Eastern United States.
In the late 1990s, Lang returned to China to coach the national women's volleyball team, bringing successive honors to her country.
Time flew and the Beijing 2008 Olympics were around the corner. When Lang Ping came back to China again in August that year, she was the head coach of the American women’s volleyball team, in opposition to the Chinese women’s volleyball team headed by Chen Zhonghe.
For the Chinese spectators, this was something quite beyond them, and the “peaceful battle” between Chen and Lang became an instant sensation nationwide.
Chen Zhonghe had led the Chinese women's volleyball team in winning the World Cup in 2003 and the gold in Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Everyone was wondering if Team China could create more glory by beating Team America led by Lang Ping, the iron hammer.
But in the end, the Chinese women volleyballers lost to their American counterparts. They just won a bronze in the 2008 Olympics.
China women's volleyball team failed to defend its title, and on social media Chinese netizens poured their anger to Lang Ping.
Some even questioned her nationality, and Lang had to show her Chinese passport online.
Leading Chinese girls to more glory
Following the Beijing Olympic Games, Lang Ping declined the offer of contract renewal from the American team and joined the Guangdong-based Evergrande Women's Volleyball Club.
In 2013, 53-year-old Lang Ping quitted her leading position at the Evergrande club, becoming head coach of China Women's Volleyball Team once more.
Shortly after Lang took office, the national team was expanded from 10 plus members to more than 30, including Zhu Ting, Yuan Xinyue, Zhang Changning and Gong Xiangyu (all in their teens back then).
Lang showed motherly love to the girls in the ensuing days of tense training. "During a dinner, I noticed that Lang took special looks at Zhu Ting who sat at another table quite far away, asking the potential spiker to have more green vegetables," recalled Liang.
In 2014, this young women's volleyball team played for the first time. The girls brought back to China the runner-up title of the World Championships and entered the final of the 2015 World Cup.
When playing against Serbia, the Serbian coach kept staring at Lang Ping because she frequently adjusted tactics. He didn't know it was really a difficult match for Lang Ping. Finally, the Chinese young girls won the World Cup with 10 wins and 1 loss.
In 2016 Rio Olympics, Lang Ping coached the Chinese women's volleyball team to the title, and three years later 59-year-old Lang led the Chinese women in winning the World Cup once more.
In the just concluded 2020 Olympic Games, however, the Chinese women's volleyball team encountered its "waterloo", and Lang was quite stressed, saying that she is still trying to figure out the reasons for their flop in Tokyo.
"Coach Lang is really hard-working,” said Xu Yunli, one of the members of the Chinese team. “Lang has suffered from injuries since her days as a player, but she was always with us in the training field. She would stay up late, working much longer hours.”
Although the official announcement about Lang's coaching career has not been disclosed yet, her team were clearly aware of the fact as they bowed and hugged Lang one by one with teary eyes at the end of their Tokyo finale, said a Xinhua report.
Source: Wan Xiaodao, Xinhua and others; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue and Li Jingshuo