In the summer of 1984, under the leadership of head coach Yuan Weimin, the girls of the Chinese women's volleyball team, together with the Chinese delegation, traveled thousands of miles to Los Angeles to participate in the 23rd Olympic Games.
This is the first time that the Chinese delegation has participated in the Olympic Games, and it is also the first time that the Chinese women's volleyball team has appeared in the Olympic arena. Although before this, the Chinese women's volleyball team has won the third World Cup championship in 1981 and the ninth World Women's Volleyball Championship in 1982, and won two consecutive championships (the Women's Volleyball World Championship was not held for some reason in 1983), not only becoming a well-known hero in China, but also attracting the attention of the international sports world, but for the upcoming Olympic Games, the women's volleyball girls are still uneasy in their hearts.
The Chinese women's volleyball team won the third World Cup championship in 1981
Xu Haifeng's outstanding performance has added confidence to the Chinese women's volleyball team.
On July 29, the day after the Los Angeles Olympics began, 27-year-old shooter Xu Haifeng won the men's pistol 60-round slow-fire championship, becoming the first Olympic gold medalist and China's first Olympic gold medalist. Bi Xidong, a sports commentator at China Youth Daily, wrote an impassioned editorial titled "Farewell, 0", saying that "Chinese who have been carrying the burden of 'zero' in the Olympic Games for more than half a century can now breathe and raise their eyebrows!" ”
The girls of the Chinese women's volleyball team were deeply encouraged and determined to follow Xu Haifeng's example and write down their achievements on the gold medal list of the Chinese delegation.
Xu Haifeng
However, the process of the Chinese women's volleyball team is quite unsmooth. In the group stage, the Chinese women's volleyball team was divided into Group A together with the American women's volleyball team, a fierce opponent who had a high demand for winning the championship. Although the Chinese women's volleyball team first defeated the Brazilian women's volleyball team 3:0, and then defeated the Federal Republic of Germany women's volleyball team 3:0, in the third game, it lost to the American women's volleyball team 1:3, and only entered the semifinals with the second place in the group.
Fortunately, under the guidance of head coach Yuan Weimin, the Chinese women's volleyball team quickly adjusted its mentality, found its feelings, and cleanly defeated the Japanese women's volleyball team 3:0 in the semi-finals, and defeated the American women's volleyball team 3:0 in the final, repaying the "one-arrow revenge", winning the first volleyball Olympic gold medal in Chinese history, and also becoming the first "triple crown" in the history of women's volleyball in the world.
The Chinese women's volleyball team that won the los Angeles Olympics
The Chinese women's volleyball team once again caused a sensation throughout China, causing the people of the whole country to fall into ecstasy. In the days that followed, the National Sports Commission received tens of thousands of letters from all over the country, piled up in the communication room. The recipients of the envelopes without exception all have the four big characters of "Chinese Women's Volleyball Team" written on them.
At that time, someone put forward a suggestion to the National Sports Commission in the letter, requesting that the coaches and athletes of the Chinese women's volleyball team be given heavy awards in accordance with the practice of rewarding labor models and reform pioneers in various places, so as to encourage the athletes to achieve more excellent results. In the 1980s, China had not yet established a system of awarding bonuses to coaches and athletes who achieved excellent results, but after carefully studying this proposal, the National Sports Commission expressed its approval and decided to come up with a sum of funds to reward the Chinese women's volleyball team.
As a result, head coach Yuan Weimin received a bonus of 15,000 yuan, and Zhang Rongfang and Lang Ping's main players received a bonus of 13,000 yuan.
Yuan Weimin was interviewed
If you put it now, the bonus of more than 10,000 yuan is not a big deal. However, in the early 1980s, a worker could only get a few tens of yuan a month, and a farmer who became a "10,000 yuan household" could get on the local news. In contrast, the bonus of more than 10,000 yuan can be called a "huge amount".
More importantly, since the 23rd Olympic Games, it has gradually become a normal practice to reward coaches and athletes who have achieved excellent results. As far as the Chinese women's volleyball team is concerned, if excellent results are achieved in international competitions, then the State General Administration of Sport and official sponsors will fund awards, and the local governments to which coaches and athletes belong will also take out a certain amount of bonuses for rewards.
For example, after the Chinese women's volleyball team won the gold medal of the 28th Athens Olympic Games in 2004, it won a large amount of money. The State General Administration of Sport provided a prize of 2.4 million yuan (200,000 yuan per player), the official sponsor sent a prize of 3 million yuan, the local government sent a total of 10.64 million yuan in bonuses, Lang Ping's alumnus Mr. Qiu Jiduan sent 5 million yuan in prize money, head coach Lang Ping personally took out a 2 million yuan bonus, adding up to a total of 23.04 million yuan, the Chinese women's volleyball team can get an average of nearly 2 million yuan of bonuses per person.
Head coach Lang Ping
The Chinese women's volleyball team belongs to the top level of athletes, the salary is not bad (of course, far less than the male football players), the local women's volleyball team members are far behind. Nowadays, the degree of attention of women's volleyball is not high, and the number of people engaged in volleyball is getting smaller and smaller, making powerful enterprises unwilling to invest money in women's volleyball, and the salaries of women's volleyball players can only rely on state investment, and the general income is low.
The Tianjin women's volleyball team has won many good results in competitions in recent years, and the treatment in all aspects is good, and the main players are only seven or eight thousand yuan per month. The income of the members of the women's volleyball team in other places is even lower, generally only three or four thousand yuan.
A member of the Chinese women's volleyball team
So, is this progress or regression?