RIO Olympics - non-badminton events

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Okuhara and Zhu Ting

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Justin L said:
I don't think there's a volleyball league in China...
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Yes, China has.

Chinese Female League 2016/2017 (Oct 2016 - Apr 2017)

Pool I: Tianjin; Bayi; Liaoning; Fujian; Sichuan' Henan

Pool II: Jiangsu; Shanghai; Zhejiang; Beijing; Yunnan; Shandong

The official rosters will be shown on Sep 15, 2016.

For those who are interested to watch the Chinese League matches [of the last season], chinasporttv02 channel has been uploading plenty of such CCTV-5 videos.

chinasporttv02 - Chinese Women's Volleyball League, 2015-2016 Season - YouTube
 

An article that aptly yet succinctly summarizes why the Chinese women's volleyball team means so much for the whole nation and even more...

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Why do Chinese love their women's volleyball team so much (22 AUG)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- 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.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-08/22/c_135622161.htm
 
There is a story about coach Lang Ping in the "will LYB retire" that I am writing right now, if some of you are interested.
 
Aside from all the history of women's volleyball, I think there is also another reason why they are so popular.

As it is one of the few sports in which China can say they are winning as a team in Olympics. badminton while popular, is still an individual event. Chen Long won, great, but you cannot say CHINA won.

honestly, China isn't very good in any other team events, men volleyball, gymnastics, football (the once very good women team is just so so now), basketball, handball, rugby, all no where. the only one where China can excel in is women volleyball. People who are just casual watcher don't necessarily associate themselves with Chen Long, Fu Haifeng. But anyone of Chinese origin can probably do so with team China.

At least that's my take on it. I was at home hosting a few friends for dinner that night and just happened the women volleyball final was on. We were happily cheering on the Chinese team even though none of us really followed what happened.
 
kwun said:
Aside from all the history of women's volleyball, I think there is also another reason why they are so popular.

As it is one of the few sports in which China can say they are winning as a team in Olympics. badminton while popular, is still an individual event. Chen Long won, great, but you cannot say CHINA won.

honestly, China isn't very good in any other team events, men volleyball, gymnastics, football (the once very good women team is just so so now), basketball, handball, rugby, all no where. the only one where China can excel in is women volleyball. People who are just casual watcher don't necessarily associate themselves with Chen Long, Fu Haifeng. But anyone of Chinese origin can probably do so with team China.

At least that's my take on it. I was at home hosting a few friends for dinner that night and just happened the women volleyball final was on. We were happily cheering on the Chinese team even though none of us really followed what happened.
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Yes, its popular because it's a TEAM sports. In China they have this saying "三大国球 - volleyball, basketball and football"

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kwun said:
Aside from all the history of women's volleyball, I think there is also another reason why they are so popular.

As it is one of the few sports in which China can say they are winning as a team in Olympics. badminton while popular, is still an individual event. Chen Long won, great, but you cannot say CHINA won.

honestly, China isn't very good in any other team events, men volleyball, gymnastics, football (the once very good women team is just so so now), basketball, handball, rugby, all no where. the only one where China can excel in is women volleyball. People who are just casual watcher don't necessarily associate themselves with Chen Long, Fu Haifeng. But anyone of Chinese origin can probably do so with team China.

At least that's my take on it. I was at home hosting a few friends for dinner that night and just happened the women volleyball final was on. We were happily cheering on the Chinese team even though none of us really followed what happened.
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Aside from all said above, the women's volleyball itself is a really fascinating sport to watch IMO!

Where else can one watch a group of female athletes having so good in the physical built: tall, athletic, strong yet agile plus the bonus, many having very nice looking girls/ladies of model qualities... ha ha ha :p and the players in the team must cooperate well each other to succeed, just relying on one or two outstanding players only will not put the team at the top... game strategy is quite crucial too

Well, the other women's team sports like football, hockey, handball, water polo or even basketball (possibly the closest women's team sport in term of attractiveness) just don't possess the charms as much as the volleyball. I enjoy any WVB match involves those world class teams :D btw the WVB also has the most dynamic and flourishing club competitions around the world among the women's team sports.

As for the Chinese women's volleyball team, there's also a historic factor and a symbolic role. Its rise to the top of the world more or less coincided with the early stage of the Deng Xiaoping's modernization in the early of 1980s, already excelled amidst all the hardships and limitations. If the table tennis previously served in the "ping pong diplomacy" then the women's volleyball signified the new era of China, escaped from the century-long setbacks and backwardness.

The article at my post above at #385 as well as following article have good summaries upon the special significance of the women's volleyball among all other sports for the Chinese people: http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/features/Spotlight/1608/3002-1.htm
 
interesting how a thread of "RIO Olympics - non-badminton events" has become a thread of "Chinese Women's Volleyball".

Chinese women are indeed very tough, smart and hard working. Further, there is a huge pool of talents to choose from. But as others have pointed out, Chinese don't perform very well in team competitions (or teams in general), which is why China feels very strongly about this win.

Chinese women used to be overwhelmingly dominant in badminton. It is still a puzzle to me why it has declined so drastically in the past four years across the board.
 
But Chen Long is still very much a product of CBA who made him him what he is today, so in a way he is both a champion in his own right as well as a CHN national player. For team event. it's more of a team effort rather than individual, that's all. There's no denying badminton is basically a nation-based sport.

Chen Long's Olympic victory is for the nation and for himself as his gold is added in the total medal tally reflecting the nation's. That's why in many nations, both the government and the private sector combined are willing to reward the medallists a substantial amount in cash and kind, including title awards,sponsorships, life-time pensions, eg Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan,etc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/19/sport/olympic-rewards-by-country/
 
pcll99 said:
interesting how a thread of "RIO Olympics - non-badminton events" has become a thread of "Chinese Women's Volleyball".

Chinese women are indeed very tough, smart and hard working. Further, there is a huge pool of talents to choose from. But as others have pointed out, Chinese don't perform very well in team competitions (or teams in general), which is why China feels very strongly about this win.

Chinese women used to be overwhelmingly dominant in badminton. It is still a puzzle to me why it has declined so drastically in the past four years across the board.
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I don't know about you, but I don't mind staying with women's volleyball for another 90 seconds... (although not Chinese volleyball in particular):

 
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