53-year-old former national player Lai Yawen was promoted to director of the volleyball management center, and half of his life was dedicated to the Chinese women's volleyball team, and he was finally corrected

Since the retirement of Li Quanqiang, the director of the drainage management center, who will succeed him as the number one of the drainage management center has attracted much attention. Today, the official news of the Chinese Volleyball Association revealed that Lai Yawen, the former captain of the Chinese women's volleyball team, became the new director of the volleyball management center. In the Chinese volleyball world, there are two women's names that have always shone brightly: one is Lang Ping, who added countless glory when he was a player and stood up to save the Chinese women's volleyball team twice when the team fell into a trough; The other is Lai Yawen, who has been a player and has accompanied the women's volleyball team for 20 years after suffering and missing three gold medals in three major competitions during his career as a player.

Lai Yawen was once the leader of the "silver generation" of the Chinese women's volleyball team

The captain of the "silver generation" has served in the national team for 10 years, witnessing the women's volleyball team climbing from the trough and missing the gold medals in the three major competitions

Lai Yawen from Liaoning Province was born in 1970, 1.87 meters tall, and has a relatively balanced attack and comprehensive technique. Lai Yawen entered the Chinese women's volleyball team in 1989 and was successively reused by the three coaches Hu Jin, Li Xiaofeng and Lang Ping. From the "little sister" who blocked the grid when she first joined the national team to the "confidant sister" who became a teammate when Lang Ping first coached, Lai Yawen has played for the national team for 10 years and has experienced the struggle of the Chinese women's volleyball team from the trough.

Lai Yawen has a calm and introverted personality, and his style is unpretentious. Due to her position and personality, she is not the brightest player on the field, but she has the responsibility of uniting her teammates. During his 10 years with the national team, despite the defeats at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1994 World Championships in Brazil, Lai Yawen still gained a lot in the three major competitions, and won the podium six times. Third place in the 1989 World Cup, runner-up at the 1990 World Championships, runner-up in the 1991 World Cup, third in the 1995 World Cup, runner-up at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and runner-up in the 1998 World Championships, Lai Yawen lacked a gold medal in three major competitions in his national career.

When Lai Yawen was playing, the women's volleyball team was at a relative trough, but she did not give up lightly, but chose to stick to it silently until Lang Ping returned to China to coach ushered in a turning point. After Lang Ping took office, Lai Yawen, who has both skills and experience, became her most trusted player. As captain, Lai Yawen played the role of the team's "glue" well. On the eve of preparing for the 1998 World Championships, Lai Yawen unfortunately suffered from jaundice and hepatitis. When the other deputy attack Wang Yi left the United States and the team's deputy offensive line was tight, she overcame her illness and insisted on standing on the World Championship and led the team to win the silver medal.

Lai Yawen assisted Chen Zhonghe

After retiring, he resolutely stayed on the team as a coach and successfully transformed and assisted five coaches to accompany the women's volleyball team to reach another peak

Among her teammates in the same period, Lai Yawen was the only one who remained in the Chinese women's volleyball team after retiring. In 1999, after Hu Jin replaced Lang Ping and "Erjin Palace" as the head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, he invited 29-year-old Lai Yawen to be an assistant coach. From captain to assistant coach, Lai Yawen "seamlessly connected" to complete the transformation. Just retired as a coach, "Director Lai" is still the previous "confidant big sister" in the minds of the players, and she is willing to talk to "Sister Yawen" if she has any hearts, and she has also become a bridge between the players and the head coach.

When Hu Jin and Chen Zhonghe were the head coaches, Lai Yawen has been playing with the team as an assistant coach. During this period, I tasted the bitterness of missing the top four at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and also experienced the glory of the 2003 World Cup and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. As a female coach, Lai Yawen has the delicacy and sensitivity unique to women, coupled with her background as a high-level volleyball player, she also understands the psychology of the team members better and can consider problems from the perspective of the team members.

Chen Zhonghe once spoke highly of Lai Yawen's assistant work, saying: "Lai Yawen has assisted the head coach very well. More often, she acts as a bridge between the players and the manager, like a setter between the two, making the relationship between the players and the head coach more harmonious. ”

In December 2003, Lai Yawen tied the knot with her husband Liu Guojun. On August 29, 2004, when the Chinese women's volleyball team won the Athens Olympics, she was five months pregnant. After that, Lai Yawen briefly bid farewell to the Chinese women's volleyball team due to the birth of her son, and the following year, after her son turned 3 months, she resolutely returned to continue to assist Chen Zhonghe.

Lai Yawen assisted Lang Ping

In 2009, Cai Bin succeeded Chen Zhonghe as a coach, and still invited Lai Yawen as an assistant teacher. The turmoil of the Chinese women's volleyball team in the London cycle after two years and three coaches also made her frustrated for a while, and she thought about leaving the national team after the London Olympics. In 2013, Lang Ping coached the Chinese women's volleyball team for the second time, and Lai Yawen was invited to join the coaching staff again. Lang Ping and Lai Yawen are also mentors and friends, and cooperate tacitly. Although Lai Yawen was promoted to deputy director of the volleyball management center in 2017, he still had difficulty giving up the team and took the initiative to ask to be the leader of the Chinese women's volleyball team. The Chinese women's volleyball team has risen again under the "Langting Era", winning the 2015 World Cup, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the 2017 Grand Champions Cup and the 2019 World Cup four times.

Entering the Paris cycle, the Chinese women's volleyball team once again had Cai Bin as the head coach, and Lai Yawen still participated in last year's World Championships as the team leader. From being selected for the national team in 1989 to still serving as the leader in 2022, Lai Yawen has basically accompanied the Chinese women's volleyball team for 33 years, and only faded out of the first line for a short time. It can be said that she has witnessed the ups and downs of the Chinese women's volleyball team and dedicated most of her life to the national team.

Lai Yawen mobilized the Chinese women's volleyball team as the director of the volleyball management center

Lai Yawen, director of the Rongsheng Center, is highly anticipated The parallel development of the national men's and women's volleyball team and the key to doing a good league are the key

Although the Chinese women's volleyball team won the world championship in Rio and Tokyo under the leadership of Lang Ping, the overall development of Chinese volleyball during this period was not ideal. The work of Xu Li, Pan Zhichen and Li Quanqiang, the directors of the last three drainage management centers, has also been criticized to varying degrees. For a long time, the national team and light league have been emphasized, and they blindly eat the "dividends" of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Not only is it indifferent to the development of Chinese men's volleyball and Chinese sand volleyball, but the living environment of domestic volleyball is also deteriorating.

As a practitioner who has accompanied the Chinese women's volleyball team for 30 years, Lai Yawen was placed on high hopes after being elected as the director of the volleyball management center. How to ensure that the Chinese women's volleyball team is in the world's advanced ranks, strive to narrow the gap between the Chinese men's volleyball team and the Chinese sand volleyball team and the world's strong teams, carefully build a domestic volleyball super league, and insist on combining inviting in and going out to connect with the world volleyball are all challenges that Lai Yawen will face in his future work.

For Chinese volleyball to achieve sustainable development, many aspects must be changed. Since the beginning of this year, many national players have stayed in the volleyball team of both men and women. Not only can the players go out in the year of the fight, but even some of them are drawn by the volleyball management center, such as Zhang Jingyin, the number one main player of the men's volleyball team, who landed in Bochao, and was accompanied by the Chinese team. These are positive changes for Chinese volleyball, which has always been self-contained.

Over the years, the development environment of volleyball in China has not been good, and it is not something that Lai Yawen can completely change overnight. But we still hope that she will bring a new look to Chinese volleyball after taking office, especially in a short period of time, we can let everyone see the novelty and sincerity of the official competition in the operation of the Volleyball Super League.