Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Su Jing
On November 16, 1981, in the final game of the third Volleyball World Cup held in Osaka, Japan, the Chinese women's volleyball team defeated the then world powerhouse Japan team 3-2, won the championship, climbed to the top of the women's volleyball world for the first time and opened the glorious journey of the Chinese women's volleyball team to win five consecutive championships.
Forty years of time, the ecstasy, touching and excitement brought about by the five consecutive championships, after the baptism and precipitation of the years, the meaning contained has long gone beyond the scope of sports, becoming a spiritual pillar of a nation, a spiritual force that inspires generations of upward mobility, and a banner to promote national progress.
Subsequently, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which awakened this spiritual force again and again and injected new era connotations into it. Today is the 40th anniversary of the Opening of the Five Consecutive Championships of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team, and it is of special significance to review the history of the Five Consecutive Championships and the inheritance and changes of the spirit of the Women's Volleyball Team in the past 40 years.
1981: The first ascent of the three major balls boosts national self-confidence
On November 16, 1981, when the World Cup final was held to the last minute, Lang Ping's heavy buckle was loud, Sun Jinfang's net blocking blocked the attack of the "Oriental Witch" Japanese team, and the shouts of hundreds of millions of Chinese fans waiting by the TV and radio were frozen in the sound of history.
This scene has become the most memorable scene in the history of the Chinese women's volleyball team in the past 40 years, and it is also the most exciting scene of Chinese sports. The Chinese women's volleyball team won the first world three major championships 17-15, which fulfilled the long-cherished wish of an old man 17 years ago.
In 1964, Marshal He Long, the founder of new Chinese sports, once said a sentence: "If the three major balls cannot go up, I will not be blinded." That is, that year, Hirofumi Ohmatsu led the "Oriental Witch" Japanese team to visit China, He Long watched their training, and the coaches and athletes of various provinces, regardless of the project, all gathered to observe the demonstration training of Hirofumi Ohmatsu, and the main object of training was the domestic women's volleyball athletes.
At this point, Hirofumi Dasong's training concept has been resolutely implemented in the Chinese women's volleyball team, and with a complete training system, the performance of the Chinese women's volleyball team has begun to improve qualitatively.
At the end of the 1970s, Yuan Weimin formed a new Chinese women's volleyball team, set the goal of "laying the foundation in three years, and producing results in five years", and three years later, the team won the Asian Championship championship.
In 1981, he took the team that had just turned five to the third Women's Volleyball World Cup in Japan, and the team members were Lang Ping, Sun Jinfang, Liang Yan, Zhang Rongfang, Zhou Lumin, Zhang Jieyun, Chen Yaqiong, Zhou Xiaolan, Yang Xi, Zhu Ling, Cao Huiying and Chen Zhaodi. That was also Lang Ping's first time to participate in the World Series, but he was pushed to the position of the main attacker, and as a result, Lang Ping and the Chinese women's volleyball team were "a blockbuster" in the world volleyball arena.
On November 16, the Chinese women's volleyball team debuted on the world's highest podium! From the perspective of sports, the long-cherished wish of Marshal He Long 17 years ago has been realized, and it is also a sign that Chinese sports are moving towards strength.
The championship of the Chinese women's volleyball team that year shocked the world sports world and broke the old foreign perception of Chinese sports. After the game, Japanese fans could not even accept the result of defeat and had been around the stadium for a long time and did not want to leave.
Lang Ping later recalled that the Osaka Central Gymnasium was crowded with people, and after playing the final, the Chinese team's car could not drive back to the hotel, so it had to walk back, "I just felt that I was constantly stepping on other people's feet, and others were constantly stepping on my feet, so I stepped back on the hotel." ”
If we put this championship into a broader historical dimension, this championship has a far-reaching significance of enhancing national self-confidence. In the early 1980s, China reopened its doors after many years of reopening its doors, finding itself with a huge gap between itself and the developed countries of the world, "Can we win a place on the world stage?" Just when people were hesitant in their hearts, the Chinese women's volleyball team gave the most timely answer, which greatly encouraged the national self-confidence of the Chinese people.
In this context, the women's volleyball girls have become national heroes, that year the 7 matches of the Chinese women's volleyball team were broadcast live through the international communication satellite live broadcast of the game, the People's Daily reported on the front page of the whole process, and the day after winning the championship, it was more rare to report on the entire front page.
Zhu Ling, the deputy attacker, recalled, "After returning to China, we were cordially received by the leaders of the country, and our mood was quite excited. And the plastic flowers sent by fans are even more numerous, and plastic flowers are very precious things at that time. The fans and the masses are eager to give you their hearts. ”
1986: The spirit of the women's volleyball team born in five consecutive championships
On September 13, 1986, at the 10th World Women's Volleyball Championship in Czechoslovakia, the head coach of the Chinese team was replaced by Yuan Weimin and zhang Rongfang, a former player. In the extremely difficult background of the retirement of many famous players and the decline in the strength of the team, the Chinese women's volleyball team has won eight games, especially in the championship battle, it defeated the Cuban women's volleyball team known as the "Caribbean Whirlwind" 3-1, won the world championship, and achieved the "five consecutive championships" legend in the history of world sports.
The brilliant record of the five consecutive championships made the tenacious fighting spirit of the women's volleyball girls become the banner of that era.
Objectively speaking, the Chinese women's volleyball team did not have advanced technology at the beginning, did not have the height advantage of athletes in Europe, America and Africa, and did not have the top coach, which was a "three no team". Cao Huiying, the women's volleyball captain at the time, said a very vivid sentence: "Playing with opponents, looking at the net, their legs are thicker than our waists, if they don't practice like this, how can they play?" "To break out of a bloody road, the Chinese team can only rely on hard and solid training and tenacious fighting spirit."
Lang Ping once said after three consecutive championships that in the future, whether we win or lose, we must maintain the spirit of unity and cooperation, which is the spirit of sports and the spirit of the Chinese nation. The spirit of the women's volleyball team that wins glory for the country, is not afraid of difficulties, and works tenaciously has also become a symbol of the national spirit, which is deeply imprinted in the hearts of every Chinese.
In those years, the deeds of the women's volleyball team's hard training were spread in the streets and alleys, and people talked about it. For example, the "secret base" of the women's volleyball team, Chenzhou, the women's volleyball team crawled in the bamboo shed built in more than 40 days, the wooden floor in the field is the abandoned sleeper on the railway, and the roof cover is a canvas borrowed from the railway station. In training, because the floor often has bamboo thorns, it is common for women's volleyball players to be injured, and the exhibition hall of chenzhou base still displays the blackened worn-out cloth shoes and coarse cloth vests worn by the women's volleyball team.
According to Deng Yonghua, director of the Chenzhou Sports Training Base, the vest was later temporarily sewn to reduce the injuries of the team members and the wear and tear of the training clothes, and was used to put on the outside of the training clothes.
In those years, fans also gave athletes a lot of sonorous and powerful nicknames, such as Chen Zhaodi, the "one-armed general" who broke his radius but fixed his left arm with a bandage and insisted on standing on the field; Chen Yaqiong, the "steel general" who sprained his waist during the game and was so serious that he could not squat down but still insisted on playing; Zhou Xiaolan, who had super ability to block nets, "Tiananmen City Wall"; not to mention the famous "iron hammer" Lang Ping.
These deeds were praised by the Chinese people, written into textbooks, and appeared in various speeches. As a representative of the fighting spirit, the images of the women's volleyball girls were printed on stamps, and the collective photos of the women's volleyball team were made into calendars, commemorative coins and medals. The tenacious spirit of the women's volleyball team has injected infinite spiritual strength into the Chinese of all walks of life.
"I remember a report meeting at Peking University, the students were very enthusiastic, from the gate of Peking University to the auditorium, my feet did not touch the ground, you want to be crowded." 」 Lang Ping recalled. In those years, when there was a women's volleyball competition, when the time came, the TV in the mall was all turned on, and those who bought and sold things were all around to watch, and the women's volleyball team was the biggest "traffic" star of the year.
Wei Jizhong, former vice chairman of the Chinese Volleyball Association, wrote in his memoir "My Sports Career": "In that era, there was nothing more exciting than the women's volleyball team's vigorous slam that made Chinese feel proud. ”
Two Olympic championships, the inheritance and innovation of the spirit of the women's volleyball team
Bidding farewell to the glory of the 80s, the performance of the Chinese women's volleyball team declined in the 90s, but even at the lowest point, the Chinese women's volleyball team still had a momentum of never accepting defeat and forging ahead. In the years when the salary was tasted, Chinese volleyball players tried many ways to revive the women's volleyball team.
Lang Ping, who was coaching abroad, once returned to China to coach, led the team to the runner-up of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and before the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, she fainted at the training base due to heart problems, and later resigned and left the national team.
Entering the new century, the "golden generation" created by Chen Zhonghe has begun to emerge. In the 2003 World Cup, the Chinese women's volleyball team regained the world championship after 16 years with a record of 11 total victories. In the final of the women's volleyball team at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the Chinese women's volleyball team staged a scene of anger and intestines - in the context of the injury of the main player Zhao Ruirui, relying on the struggle of collective strength, reversing the Russian team in the case of falling behind two sets, and re-ascending to the Olympic championship after 20 years.
Find hope in despair, seize the light in hope, and become the most exciting place for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
That session of the Chinese women's volleyball team is not the favorite to win the championship, the overall strength is not above the participating teams, the world-class star Zhao Ruirui's second fracture during the game is a huge blow to the team, but the advantage of this Chinese women's volleyball team is that the teamwork ability is strong, can complement the lack of deficiencies, small ball technology is at its peak, the overall fast-changing tactics are played to the extreme, and the sportsmanship of "never losing in the face of strong enemies" manifested in the birthplace of the Olympic Games has also further enriched the core of the women's volleyball team.
Zhao Ruirui later wrote in her book "Volleyball Soul": "Speaking of cohesion, Yuan Dao (Yuan Weimin) has a 6>6 theory: the strength of 6 people on the field must be added together to become greater than six, which requires everyone to unite together, and with a clear centripetal force, it can produce indestructible cohesion; conversely, it is possible to become six people together to become five, four, or even less. ”
She also expressed her understanding of the spirit of the women's volleyball team, "Sometimes, knowing that (the ball) cannot be saved, but also to take brave and firm steps; knowing that there is no smooth road, still stubbornly gritting their teeth and insisting, continuing to go on; even sometimes knowing that there is little hope, I don't want to bow my head and admit defeat without doing my best..."
If the slogan of "unite and revitalize China" resounded throughout the land of Shenzhou, then the victory of Athens affected a new generation of Chinese born in the 1980s and 1990s. A sport has influenced two generations, and the love for the women's volleyball team can be seen from the ratings, and the ratings of the women's volleyball final of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games even overwhelmed the opening and closing ceremonies, becoming the top of the Olympic ratings.
The highest-rated event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was also the bronze medal battle between the Chinese women's volleyball team and the Cuban women's volleyball team.
Since then, Lang Ping has regained control of the Chinese women's volleyball team, which has further expanded the core of the spirit of the women's volleyball team. From taking office in 2013 to stepping down in 2021, Lang Ping injected scientific management and human care into the spirit of the women's volleyball team on the basis of hard training. In the past, the spirit of the women's volleyball team was condensed into the word "hard work", and now in the context of the new era, the content covered is more extensive, such as excellent technology, innovative national team concept, scientific rehabilitation system, etc., which is more in line with the pulse of the times.
At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the Chinese women's volleyball team counterattacked strongly on the verge of being eliminated in the group stage, defeating the host and defending champion Brazil in the quarterfinals, and finally reached the top again. The whirlwind of women's volleyball has once again swept through Shenzhou, and under this upsurge, the spirit of the new era women's volleyball team of "hard work + wisdom + science" is more likely to be accepted by the post-00 generation.
"The spirit of the women's volleyball team is not to win the championship, but sometimes it knows that it will not win, and it must do its best." It is you who, even if you walk shakily all the way, still insist on standing up and shaking the dust on your body, and your eyes are full of determination. "As long as we wear a jersey with 'China' printed on it, it is our duty and mission to represent the motherland, and it is our obligation and mission to win glory for the country, and every time we play, our goal is to raise the national flag and play the national anthem." Lang Ping's golden sentences in the Internet era have been repeated, which has allowed the spirit of the women's volleyball team to be disseminated and enriched in the greatest dimension.
Since November 16, 1981, when the Chinese women's volleyball team stood on the highest podium for the first time, the Chinese women's volleyball team has experienced adversity and troughs, and has also reached the peak several times. In the past 40 years, the most valuable thing handed down by the Chinese women's volleyball team is not those gold medals and trophies, but the spirit of the women's volleyball team that resonates with the pulse of the times with the development of the times. I believe that in the future, it will still affect more people and become the banner that will never fall in the new era. (For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pie pai.ycwb.com)
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Image | Visual China
Editor-in-charge | Wei Chaoran