The Chinese women's volleyball team is not only a sports event, but also represents a spirit. Generation after generation of women's volleyball girls have practiced this and passed on the spirit of the women's volleyball team.
Although the Chinese women's volleyball team's results at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics are not so ideal, the women's volleyball girls still fully demonstrated the spirit of the women's volleyball team.
As early as 1981, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the World Cup in Japan by winning 7 games. This was also the first time the Chinese women's volleyball team won the World Cup.
From then on, until 1986, the Chinese women's volleyball team overcame all obstacles and won the first "five consecutive championships" in the history of world volleyball.
At that time, Zhou Xiaolan could be said to be the athlete with the strongest blocking ability in Chinese history. Not only that, she was also the noble person who later saved the women's volleyball team from the trough.
Because it was she who, under tremendous pressure, invited Lang Ping back to China to serve as the head coach of the women's volleyball team. If Lang Ping is the superhero who made the women's volleyball team successful, then she is a behind-the-scenes hero.
The young Zhou Xiaolan is the most beautiful girl in the women's volleyball team. She once appeared on the cover of "Popular Film" together with Gong Xue, the Golden Rooster Award Best Actress; she is the most successful athlete in the women's volleyball team. At the age of 38, she became the Deputy Director of Ball Games of the National Sports Commission of China; she was also the most unique woman in the women's volleyball team. At the age of 39, she resolutely resigned from her position, went to the United States for love, and settled in a foreign country.
What kind of life experience did such a legendary woman with personality have that allowed her to give up fame and fortune and go to another country at the peak of her career?
Zhou Xiaolan was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in 1957. Her parents are both intellectuals.
In the 1960s, Zhou Xiaolan's parents actively responded to the country's call and came to the northwest region to revitalize industry. Therefore, Zhou Xiaolan, who was only three years old, was sent to her grandmother's house in Shanghai. Although she was not accompanied by her parents, she also spent a happy childhood in her grandmother's house.
When Zhou Xiaolan was 9 years old, her parents were worried that she would neglect her studies due to lack of supervision, so they took her to take care of her. From then on, Zhou Xiaolan gradually grew up under the strict education of her parents, and the strict education also developed her perseverance.
Zhou Xiaolan spent several happy years with her parents. However, the good times did not last long, and this happy life only lasted 4 years.
In 1970, the rural-urban migration movement also affected Zhou Xiaolan's family. Zhou Xiaolan's parents were sent to a small village in Gujiao County, Shanxi, where 13-year-old Zhou Xiaolan began her difficult life.
Compared with life in the city, it can be said that life in the countryside is very different. The roads here are rugged, the houses are simple, and there is a lack of food and clothing. Even drinking water requires traveling far away to get it.
Zhou Xiaolan, who grew up in the city, had never carried water, so she fell down the first time she carried water. The water was spilled and her hands were worn out, but even so, she did not go home crying. Instead, she silently got up and dusted herself off, turned around and went to fetch water again.
Although Zhou Xiaolan had grown to over 1.7 meters tall at this time, it could not change the fact that she was only 13 years old at heart. Therefore, she did not have much strength. When she carried two buckets of water home, , it was inevitable that she would stagger, and she was still walking on a rugged road with unstable roads and shaking buckets. These made it difficult for a little girl to move forward, but she always gritted her teeth and never complained.
Even though life was difficult, Zhou Xiaolan’s parents never gave up on her education.
The school at that time was nearly 20 miles away from Zhou Xiaolan’s home. Every day, Zhou Xiaolan had to climb mountains and walk 20 miles on the rugged and winding mountain road to get to the school.
Sometimes when it was windy and rainy and the mountain road was full of mud, she would slip and walk step by step towards school in the pouring rain.
Throughout the year, no matter it was hot or cold, she always walked on her way to school alone, braving the scorching sun and wind and snow.
The hard years in the countryside not only made Zhou Xiaolan stronger physically, but also honed her tough character.
During those years of living in the countryside, Zhou Xiaolan also encountered a dangerous incident that still makes her sweat when she thinks about it.
This winter, it got dark very early. It was already a little dark when Zhou Xiaolan was out of school. At this time, she met a wolf on her way home alone.
Seeing that we were about to reach the entrance of the village after climbing another hillside, encountering a wolf in this deserted place was probably a very bad thing. But Zhou Xiaolan did not sit still and waited for death. She got into a cave based on her familiarity with the terrain.
She hunched over and hid in the cave, holding a stone in her hand, not daring to breathe out, staring outside, for fear that the wild wolves would find her traces.
She stood like this in the cave for a long time. It was already dark outside. Suddenly, she heard footsteps outside, so she boldly leaned out and looked outside. The man passing by was an uncle from the same village. As soon as she saw an acquaintance, she immediately felt relieved and gritted her teeth and ran back home.
When Zhou Xiaolan opened the door, she saw her mother spinning anxiously in the yard. At this time, she finally couldn't hold back her tears and threw herself into her mother's arms and cried loudly.
Seeing that she returned home safely, the mother finally felt relieved. The two mothers stood in the yard and cried for a long time. This is also the time when Zhou Xiaolan sheds the most tears in her memory.
Zhou Xiaolan was already 16 years old when she entered the sports world, which can be said to be very old among the newcomers in the sports world at that time. Sports training generally requires a good foundation from an early age, and only after more than ten years of practice can you have the opportunity to become a professional athlete.
So can Zhou Xiaolan, now 16 years old, still be a professional athlete?
The opportunity for Zhou Xiaolan to become an athlete came by chance. In 1973, Zhou Xiaolan participated in a sports meeting held in Taiyuan City at the encouragement of her friends. At that time, Zhou Xiaolan was a head taller than her peers. She stood out among a group of girls and immediately attracted the coach of the basketball team of Taiyuan City Sports School. .
However, because basketball was very popular at the time, there were no vacant positions on the basketball team. In order to stay, Zhou Xiaolan had to join the volleyball team, which had only a few players at the time.
Zhou Xiaolan originally trained with the mentality of staying to practice first and then returning to the basketball team. But from the moment Zhou Xiaolan picked up volleyball, she fell in love with this sport. I never thought about changing teams again.
16-year-old Zhou Xiaolan is considered older among the team members. During the boring and arduous training, many girls are often tired and cry because they cannot bear the hardship of training, but Zhou Xiaolan I never felt hard, and instead became more interested in volleyball.
When it comes to volleyball, she feels full of strength and fighting spirit. Compared with the hardships she experienced in the countryside, these trainings are just a drop in the bucket.
After rigorous and arduous training, Zhou Xiaolan's strength continued to increase, and she gradually stood out from the sports school and was selected into the women's volleyball team of Shanxi Province. Zhou Xiaolan was very happy. She dreamed of one day becoming a national player. Women's volleyball team members.
Fortunately, another opportunity has arisen to get one step closer to becoming a national women's volleyball player. In 1977, the first Youth Volleyball World Championship was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The coaches of the national team came to the volleyball teams of various provinces and cities, hoping to select outstanding athletes to represent China in this competition. There is a rigid rule in the Youth World Championships: all athletes participating in the competition must not be older than 20 years old.
Therefore, Zhou Xiaolan, who was under 20 years old and 182 centimeters tall at the time, attracted the attention of the coach of the national youth volleyball team. After many rounds of selection, Zhou Xiaolan successfully entered the national youth team, which means that she will represent the country in Brazil to compete in the Youth Volleyball World Championships.
In this competition, the Chinese youth team lived up to expectations and won the runner-up place in the World Championships. As the deputy attacker of the team, Zhou Xiaolan performed well and showed her strong strength in the game. Therefore, this game became a springboard for her to enter the national team.
Soon, the national team women’s volleyball coach invited Zhou Xiaolan to participate in the training camp. National team coach? Training camp? Does this mean that she is only one step away from joining the national team?
Zhou Xiaolan couldn't believe it when she heard the news, and confirmed it with her coach again and again.
She happily hugged her coach, jumped and laughed, and shouted: "I will be a national team member from now on!" After that, she didn't sleep well for several days, looking forward to entering the national team as soon as possible.
In 1977, 20-year-old Zhou Xiaolan officially entered the national team and began training. It only took her 4 years from the beginning of volleyball to entering the national team. Such a rapid rise was actually unimaginable at the time.
Soon, Zhou Xiaolan became an official member of the national team with her excellent skills, keen judgment, and strong physical fitness.
As soon as she joined the team, Zhou Xiaolan became the main player. She was calm, wise and decisive in the game, and never complained about hardship in training. She became a person who was greatly admired by her teammates at the time. At that time, her teammates gave her He was nicknamed "Desperate Saburo".
Zhou Xiaolan is the deputy attacker in the national team, that is, he stands in the front row and is responsible for jumping up and blocking. In addition to being tall and having good jumping ability, people standing in this position also need agility and agility. Keen judgment, and these happen to be Zhou Xiaolan's strengths.
On the court, Zhou Xiaolan stared at the volleyball with her eyes like a wolf, and her meticulous defense left no opportunity for her opponents to take advantage of.
The national women's volleyball team at that time was very strong. Among them, twelve female players including "Iron Hammer" Lang Ping, "Tiananmen Wall" Zhou Xiaolan, and "One-Armed General" Chen Zhaodi were invincible on the volleyball battlefield.
In 1979, the Chinese women's volleyball team broke out of Asia for the first time and won the championship of the second Asian Women's Volleyball Championship. In this game, Zhou Xiaolan won the personal "Best Performance Award". Since then, the Chinese women's volleyball team has A winning streak began during the game.
At that time, the Japanese team was known as the strongest team in Asia, and the Chinese women's volleyball team began to break out of Asia and enter the world with its victory over the Japanese team. This victory was a breakthrough for the Chinese women's volleyball team and also historical. sexual.
In November 1981, the third Women's Volleyball World Cup was held in Japan. As the host, the Japanese women's volleyball team entered the stadium with great momentum, as if they were bound to win the championship. However, the Chinese women's volleyball team broke through strongly. Breaking their delusions.
The Chinese women's volleyball team played calmly and steadily in this competition, reaching the finals with victory after victory. Even when they faced the Japanese team, they were not afraid and did not flinch.
This final was very fierce. In the last game, the score between the two sides was very close. At the last moment, the Chinese team even fell behind 14:15 and was about to lose the game. Zhou Xiaolan did not panic. He calmly analyzed the situation on the court, and finally succeeded in consecutive blocks, creating offensive opportunities again and again for the main attacker Lang Ping.
With tacit cooperation, the women's volleyball girls finally defeated the Japanese team with a score of 17:15 and won the game. This was the first world championship in the history of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
The victory in this competition set off a movement craze across the country. Students spontaneously took to the streets and shouted "Unite, revitalize China." Lang Ping and Zhou Xiaolan, who performed well in the competition, also became household names at the time.
After that, the women's volleyball team successively won the women's volleyball gold medal at the 1982 Asian Games, the 1983 World Super Women's Volleyball Championship, and the women's volleyball gold medal at the 23rd Olympic Games in 1984.
The record of "five consecutive championships" has brought the Chinese women's volleyball team to its most glorious moment, but for Zhou Xiaolan, the process of winning this "five consecutive championships" was full of twists and turns.
After winning the World Cup in 1982, Zhou Xiaolan was still immersed in the joy of winning the championship. But it was also at this time that she suffered from appendicitis at her peak. Shortly after the operation, He had to be hospitalized for recuperation due to gastroenteritis.
Time is precious for athletes. The torture of illness prevented Zhou Xiaolan from training for three consecutive months.
This illness greatly weakened Zhou Xiaolan’s vitality and her physical fitness was not as good as before. After returning to team training, she had difficulty adapting and gradually could not find her place in the team.
Feeling that her current state was far different from her peak period, Zhou Xiaolan fell into deep depression as she watched the younger generation of players grow up.
With the encouragement of the coach and team members, and her unremitting efforts, Zhou Xiaolan rejoined the main team from a marginal player, participated in the Asian Games in September 1982 with the team members, and helped the team Won the championship.
After the Asian Games, 25-year-old Zhou Xiaolan withdrew from the main team due to physical reasons and became a substitute.
This time Zhou Xiaolan was not frustrated or complaining. She knew that her current situation was not as good as that of young people, so she took the initiative to abdicate in favor of talents for the sake of the overall situation and to inspire the younger generation.
The 13th Olympic Games in 1984 began. Zhou Xiaolan, who was on the bench, watched her teammates running, shouting, and fighting on the field, and could no longer restrain her desire to fight alongside them.
She cheers from the sidelines, observes the situation, and makes suggestions for her teammates. In the end, the women's volleyball girls won the Olympic gold medal.
The joy of victory shocked Zhou Xiaolan's heart. She wanted to stand on the field again and win the championship with her own hands, but she knew that this was almost impossible. Holding the trophy, I was extremely moved, and tears burst into my eyes in an instant.
Her teammates also understood her reluctance, and the women's volleyball girls hugged each other and cried together.
Since the United States won the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the women's volleyball girls have become representatives of China's image in the world, and the spirit of the women's volleyball team has also become the spirit of the times.
With her impressive record and beautiful face, Zhou Xiaolan appeared on the cover of the most influential magazine "Popular Films" at the time with Gong Xue, the most popular actor at the time.
Later women's volleyball players also won many honors, which laid the foundation for their future career.
In 1985, 28-year-old Zhou Xiaolan found happy love and got married to Hou Xiaofei, a former member of the national men's volleyball team and the coach of the People's Liberation Army Bayi Team at the time.
Shortly after getting married, it was time for Zhou Xiaolan to retire, but Zhou Xiaolan did not give up studying. She entered Shanghai Sports University to study management, which provided a great boost to her future career.
In 1988, Zhou Xiaolan, who graduated from university, quickly entered the National Sports Commission and continued to engage in her beloved volleyball-related work.
Relying on her many years of experience in playing volleyball and the management experience she learned in school, Zhou Xiaolan launched reforms in the national team's volleyball management system as soon as she took office.
She not only improved the training model and incentive measures, but also actively introduced funds to promote the marketization of volleyball. These reforms were supported by the General Administration of Sports and inspired the training enthusiasm of the team members. Soon, her reforms were introduced to other sports.
She loves volleyball, sports and her career. In 1994, 37-year-old Zhou Xiaolan was promoted to deputy director of the Sports Department because of her outstanding abilities. She became the youngest deputy department-level cadre at the time.
This made Zhou Xiaolan feel her own value and determined to fight for the volleyball career throughout her life.
Just when she wanted to shine in her career, the women's volleyball team fell into a trough.
The old players of the women's volleyball team are gradually retiring, and the new players are not only far inferior to the old players in their heyday in terms of strength, but their spirit is also far behind.
How can such a team achieve great results? In this way, in the next few games, the women's volleyball team's performance continued to decline. For a long time, it could not even enter the finals. The national women's volleyball team seemed to have lost its former glory of "five consecutive championships" after losing Zhou Xiaolan and other older generation women's volleyball players. It no longer exists.
At that time, the women's volleyball team was suffering from the incomprehension of the audience and the pressure from the General Administration of Sports. Zhou Xiaolan was also helpless for the former veteran players.
She was heartbroken and anxious when she saw the women's volleyball team's poor performance, so she made a bold decision - inviting her old teammate Lang Ping to return to China as a coach.
As a former teammate, Zhou Xiaolan is well aware of Lang Ping's strength. Faced with the current difficulties, inviting Lang Ping as the head coach is the best way to improve the performance of the women's volleyball team.
However, Lang Ping was the coach of the American women's volleyball team at the time, and the treatment given to Lang Ping by the United States was something she could not surpass. Therefore, she was not sure that she could invite Lang Ping.
Fortunately, the friendship between the former team members is still there. After receiving Zhou Xiaolan's invitation, Lang Ping, who has always been thinking about the volleyball career of his motherland, did not hesitate at all and agreed to Zhou Xiaolan's invitation on the spot.
In order to return to China to teach, Lang Ping terminated her contract with the US team. Since the contract had not yet expired, she had to pay a large amount of liquidated damages to the US team. Zhou Xiaolan promised that the money would be paid by the Sports Bureau.
However, the decline in the women's volleyball team's performance also put great pressure on Zhou Xiaolan, and her superiors talked to her more than once.
Soon after Lang Ping returned to China, Zhou Xiaolan submitted her resignation. She only stayed in the position of deputy director for eight months. She helped Lang Ping return to the national team, but she was unable to fight alongside her, which became Zhou Xiaolan's lifelong regret.
And Lang Ping did not disappoint Zhou Xiaolan's expectations, leading the Chinese women's volleyball team to win championships again and again. The Chinese women's volleyball team once again ushered in a glorious moment, but at this time Zhou Xiaolan had already left for the United States.
After resigning, Zhou Xiaolan lived in the United States with her husband, away from the hustle and bustle of China.
After arriving in the United States, many teams wanted to invite Zhou Xiaolan to be their coach, but she refused.
Years of sports training left Zhou Xiaolan with injuries. Now she just wants to take good care of her body and enjoy this hard-won leisure time.
Half a year later, Zhou Xiaolan has faded out of the domestic sports world and away from the volleyball she has struggled for half her life.
Zhou Xiaolan’s family also obtained permanent residence in the United States at this time, so Zhou Xiaolan continued her ordinary life in the United States as an ordinary person.
After her family settled in the United States, Zhou Xiaolan relied on her own efforts to work in statistical analysis of data in a medical device company.
Soon, she shined in her position and became the project leader. It seems that it was from this time that she stayed away from the domestic sophistication and the shackles of honor and lived the life she longed for. ordinary life.
Today Zhou Xiaolan is the mother of two children. Her two daughters are tall and graceful. They have inherited the sports genes of their parents and are very talented in volleyball.
But Zhou Xiaolan only allowed the children to practice football and would never allow them to participate in competitions on behalf of the Americans. Although Zhou Xiaolan has settled abroad, she still retains a deep love for her motherland. This should be the common mentality of every Chinese in a foreign country.
Zhou Xiaolan, who went to the United States, did not keep the promise that the women's volleyball players would get together once a year. In 2004, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the championship again at the Sydney Olympics. CCTV searched for the traces of the old women's volleyball players. This time, the old women's volleyball team gathered together again, except that the "Tiananmen Wall" Zhou Xiaolan was missing.
On April 1, 2013, Chen Zhaodi, one of the main players of the old women's volleyball team, passed away due to illness. All the old women's volleyball players came to see her off for the last time. The most regrettable thing is that Zhou Xiaolan still did not show up. She seemed The world seemed to have disappeared, and no one in the women's volleyball team had any news about her, including Lang Ping, who returned to China because of her.
Nowadays, Zhou Xiaolan has faded out of the public eye and is living a very comfortable life in the United States. However, even if her life is dull and happy, she has always been unable to let go of her beloved volleyball, so when the weather is nice, she always goes to welfare institutions in the United States to teach children how to play.
At this moment, volleyball is no longer a career for her, but a hobby in her spare time.
Many people say that the country trained an athlete in vain, and then went to other countries as soon as he achieved success. However, Zhou Xiaolan did not feel sorry for anyone. She dedicated all her youth and love to the volleyball career of her motherland.
Today's women's volleyball team has continued the glory of the past. They live up to expectations, never fear when facing powerful enemies, and win the game again and again with difficulty.
Under Lang Ping’s careful guidance, the women’s volleyball team won its tenth championship in 2019, making the spirit of the women’s volleyball team once again the strongest voice of our era.
Zhou Xiaolan’s life is full of legends. When she was young, she was not afraid of hardships and hardships to grow up. When she was young, she worked hard for her love. When she was middle-aged, she worked hard for her career. When she was old, she returned to her family to enjoy her family.
She did not get lost because of her achievements, and always stayed awake to pursue the life she wanted. Her bravery and courage deserve our admiration.