On the afternoon of April 1, 2013, a huge farewell ceremony was held at the Babao Shandong Auditorium in Beijing – Chen Zhaodi, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army and adviser to the Chinese Volleyball Association, died of cancer treatment at the age of 58.
Chen Zhaodi was the main player of the Chinese women's volleyball team's five consecutive championships, and won the 1981 World Cup and the 1982 World Championships. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, she and Song Shixiong explained the women's volleyball match, which left a deep impression on the fans. It is worth mentioning that Chen Zhaodi is the first female soldier in the sports world to be awarded the rank of major general in the army.
Chen Zhaodi
Born in 1955 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Chen Zhaodi showed outstanding athletic talent from an early age, running, long jumping, playing ball, and was a well-known "sportsman" in the school. In December 1970, the Zhejiang women's volleyball team was established, and Chen Zhaodi, who was only 15 years old, entered the Zhejiang team and became a volleyball player.
Due to her outstanding achievements, Chen Zhaodi was selected to be transferred to the youth training team of Beijing Institute of Physical Education in 1971. At that time, Chen Zhaodi's style of play was very tenacious, dared to fight, and soon stood out among players of the same age, first selected by the Bayi women's volleyball team, and finally selected by Yuan Weimin into the national women's volleyball team in 1976.
At that time, the "Cultural Revolution" had just ended, and the newly reorganized Chinese women's volleyball team first entered the international competition, and the results were not ideal. Head coach Yuan Weimin conducted strict training for women's volleyball players in order to improve their results.
Once, after training, Yuan Weimin asked the players: "Who wants to practice?" ”
But after a day of training, the girls were already exhausted, and no one responded to Yuan Weimin's words. Chen Zhaodi thought to himself: Then I will practice for a while! So I took the initiative to go over.
Yuan Weimin's prescribed additional training project is to let the athletes first touch the barbed wire on the sidelines, then run to the 3-meter line to do tumbling saves, and then run back to start the next round of saving... A total of 15 good balls are required to finish.
Chen Zhaodi's first few balls could barely catch, but when she received the 9th ball, she was too tired to run, and the ball was not caught. At this time, Yuan Weimin said: "You didn't catch it, you deducted a ball!" ”
Yuan Weimin
Chen Zhaodi had an emotion, the next few balls were not picked up, and when the 9th ball disappeared from her eyes, Yuan Weimin said that her good ball had been dunked and asked her to start over.
Chen Zhaodi suddenly became angry, and she yelled at Yuan Weimin, "Anyway, I took the initiative to practice, I don't practice the head office!" After saying that, she went outside.
Yuan Weimin also roared angrily, "If you don't want to practice, don't practice?" It's training, not child's play! You're gone today, and you're the first to practice tomorrow! ”
Chen Zhaodi turned her head back again, she was not afraid, but unconvinced, she thought to herself: I must pick up 15 good balls for the coach to see!
Yuan Weimin still served unhurriedly, as if nothing had happened, Chen Zhaodi's physical strength was overspent again, she really felt that she couldn't stand it, so she turned around again and retreated, but when she walked to the door, she still felt unwilling, and turned back to the training ground for the third time, and finally received 15 good balls with amazing perseverance.
Chen Zhaodi (middle)
Chen Zhaodi's story of "three in and three out" has become a symbol of the spirit of the women's volleyball team. At that time, in the women's volleyball team, her age was considered old, and her teammates saw that she could stick to it, so she was more active in training. This story was later written as an article "Hard Practice", which was selected as a language textbook for junior high school.
Chen Zhaodi has thus been trained hard and has become a famous second setter of the Chinese women's volleyball team, she not only has excellent single defense ability on the court, but also pioneered the use of "double fast" tactics with Chen Yaqiong, officially opening the prelude to the innovation of volleyball in the second and third positions.
In 1978, Chen Zhaodi returned from the national team to play in the National First Division, and accidentally injured his left arm for the first time. In June 1979, the Japanese women's volleyball team visited China and played a game with the Chinese team, Chen Zhaodi was blocked in the game, and was strongly hit by Keiko Okuda, who was blocking the net, and the injured part was vigorously hit, which led to bone fracture.
But in the two-month National Games, Chen Zhaodi hung her left arm with a bandage and played with one hand with an injury, and she won the reputation of "one-armed general" with her tenacious fighting spirit.
In the final of the third women's volleyball World Cup on the evening of November 16, 1981, Chen Zhaodi accidentally sprained his waist in the third set. Despite this, she still desperately defended the opponent's attack. The Chinese team and the Japanese team fought fiercely for 2 hours and 5 minutes, and finally succeeded in lifting the first world championship.
After the game, Chen Zhaodi was already in pain and could not stand up, so he had to be carried on the podium by his teammates, and the scene made people cry. This night, the audience across the country remembered the "Desperate Sanlang" Chen Zhaodi.
In 1982, Chen Zhaodi won the World Championship with the women's volleyball team. In 1983, Chen Zhaodi officially retired from the army and entered the Beijing Institute of Physical Education. After graduation, she successively served as the leader and coach of the Bayi women's volleyball team and the head coach of the Chinese youth women's volleyball team.
Chen Zhaodi (right)
In the summer of 1986, Chen Zhaodi, then the head coach of the Chinese youth women's volleyball team, led the team to Chengdu to play a game, and when organizing the training of the team members, she often felt nauseous, and complained to her colleagues: "Sichuan peppers are too spicy, and the stomach is spicy!" ”
A colleague reminded her: "You should not have it, right?" ”
The colleague's words reminded Chen Zhaodi, who quickly went to the hospital for a check-up and found that she was pregnant. But her first reaction was: This child can't ask for it. Because she was busy with her career at that time, she did not have the energy to raise her children, but if she went to have a miscarriage operation, she would have to rest for half a month, but as the head coach herself, she would miss the preparation for the Asian Youth Women's Volleyball Championship. In the end, she decided to keep the child and continue to organize the training of the team members.
One day, Chen Zhaodi was standing on a high platform to throw a ball for the players, when the leader rushed in and yelled at Chen Zhaodi: "You give me down!" "Everyone knows that the coach has been 3 months pregnant.
In the final Asian Championship, the Chinese youth women's volleyball team won the runner-up and got the ticket to the World Youth Women's Volleyball Championship.
Chen Zhaodi (left)
Just as Chen Zhaodi was preparing to make a big splash in her coaching position, in 1988, she had rectal cancer surgery and had to temporarily give up her job as a volleyball coach and bid farewell to the volleyball court.
At the beginning of 1989, Chen Zhaodi was initially cured of a serious illness, at which time the Chinese women's volleyball team regrouped, and the National Sports Commission intended to seconded her as the team leader. At this time, Hainan Province also wanted her and was ready to appoint her as the deputy director of the Cultural and Sports Department. At that time, Chen Zhaodi's lover was also working in Hainan, and if she went to Hainan, she would not only have a good job, but also be reunited with her lover and daughter, but after much consideration, she decided to return to the national team.
After Chen Zhaodi returned to the women's volleyball team, she deeply felt that under the impact of the tide of commodity economy, the ideological work of the sports team in the new period could not follow the old practice of the past, he asked himself to have a few more hearts and eyes, everything was from the subtle, she not only trained and lived with the team members, but also often chatted, laughed and entertained with them. It was in this exchange that she grasped the mental dynamics of the team members.
After Chen Zhaodi and the team members were familiar with it, they felt that compared with the old women's volleyball team in the 80s, they lacked the strength to take volleyball as a career, so she often told the players the story of the old women's volleyball team, and the team members were very encouraged after listening to it, and they said that they wanted to learn like the old women's volleyball team, strive to improve themselves, and live up to the hopes of the people of the whole country.
Chen Zhaodi led the women's volleyball team to the third place in the 1989 World Cup, the runner-up of the 1990 World Championships, and the champion of the 1991 World Cup, but also experienced the trough of only 7th place in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and later recalled the failure: "That feels like dying once." ”
In 1993, Chen Zhaodi returned to work in the military system and successively served as the director of the Culture and Sports Bureau of the General Political Department, the deputy political commissar of the Ministry of Direct Work of the General Political Department, and the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Headquarters.
Returning to the army to engage in administrative work is a brand new challenge for Chen Zhaodi: in the past, as an athlete, coach, and team leader, he mainly moved, but now he sits in the organ, which is mainly static; in the past, only volleyball was used, but now volleyball, basketball, athletics, swimming and other sports must be managed. Chen Zhaodi was busier than before.
But Chen Zhaodi once again relied on her own fierceness to overcome these difficulties, as long as there is a Plajuna team game, she will go to see, as long as there is a problem that she does not understand, she will go to ask others for advice, although she made some jokes, but quickly became familiar with the business, from "volleyball expert" to "miscellaneous family".
In October 1995, Chen Zhaodi accompanied the PEOPLE's Liberation Army delegation to the World Military Games in Italy, winning 13 gold medals, ranking third in the total number of gold medals. After the launch of the Chinese Volleyball League in 1996, Chen Zhaodi has been using her spare time as the technical representative of the Chinese Volleyball League.
In 2006, Chen Zhaodi was awarded the rank of major general for her outstanding work, becoming the first female general in the sports world. For the rank of general, she once said: "If winning the championship is the persistent pursuit of athletes, and being a general is the glorious dream of soldiers, then I am really a dream come true now!" ”
Despite her outstanding career achievements, Chen Zhaodi has always felt indebted to her family, especially her daughter Guo Chen. Because Chen Zhaodi often had to go deep into the sports teams of various military regions to investigate, there were no air traffic control children, and Guo Chen had been studying in boarding school since he was a child, and could only go home on weekends. Whenever Chen Zhaodi travels on business, colleagues take the children home for the weekend.
But Guo Chen has been very sensible since she was a child, she likes to help her classmates in school, often rated as "top ten teenagers", and was admitted to Nankai University with excellent results in the college entrance examination.
Chen Zhaodi is an enlightened mother who has a good relationship with her daughter, she once said: "We often chat online, I never interfere in her affairs, fully respect her own wishes." I feel that there are some things that she still prefers to talk to her classmates and friends, so I will not force her to ask questions. It's no wonder that everyone has their own circle of friends and trusted interlocutors. ”
Chen Zhaodi and daughter
In February 2013, Chen Zhaodi's cancer recurred and she had to be admitted to the general hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army for treatment. Although she actively cooperated with the treatment, her condition was repeated and she was often in excruciating pain. Whenever she hurt, the daughter let her bite her own hand, the daughter said: "Whenever you bite me, I know that you are very uncomfortable, the strength of your bite, I can feel how painful you are, I am not afraid of being bitten by you, as long as you can stand strong, no matter how much pain I endure, come on!" ”
During Chen Zhaodi's hospitalization, Lang Ping, who was far away in the United States, returned to China to visit her, and she watched her former teammates lying on the hospital bed, and she couldn't help but cry. In the last moments of her life, Chen Zhaodi did not talk about her illness, but exchanged training tactics with Lang Ping about the new women's volleyball team, and she hoped that Lang Ping could return to China and continue to shine for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
Chen Zhaodi and Lang Ping
But the miracle did not occur, on March 31, the hospital issued a critical illness notice, and on April 1, Chen Zhaodi died of illness at the age of 58.
On the day of the memorial service, lang ping, Sun Jinfang and other members of the old women's volleyball team came to the scene one after another under the leadership of the old coach Yuan Weimin to see the old teammates for the last time. Together, they presented Chen Zhaodi with a flower ball that read: "We are proud of you and will always miss you!" ”
Chen Zhaodi's memorial service
At that time, the Chinese women's volleyball team had entered a trough period, and some people inside the women's volleyball team had proposed to invite Lang Ping, who was in the United States, to return to China as a coach, but Lang Ping himself had been hesitant for various reasons, but after meeting with Chen Zhaodi, who was seriously ill, she finally firmed up the idea of returning to China. She said: "When the Chinese women's volleyball team needs people the most, why can't I make some sacrifices? ”
In the end, Lang Ping made a comeback again, and she led the Chinese women's volleyball team to create another peak, continuing the glory of the women's volleyball team. I believe that Chen Zhaodi's spirit in heaven will also be relieved to see these achievements!
The poet Zang Kejia once said in "Some People": Some people are alive, he is already dead; some people are dead, he is still alive. Although Chen Zhaodi has left, the spirit of the women's volleyball team she represents has remained forever, and she will become the eternal spiritual guide of Chinese sports!