On the evening of the 11th, the China Division of the Paris Olympics Women's Basketball Qualifying Tournament came to an end. The Chinese women's basketball team defeated the Puerto Rico women's basketball team 105-69 to end the journey.
The Chinese women's basketball team's record was finally set at 2 wins and 1 loss. What this team has been through over the past four days has been mixed.
Image source: FIBA Weibo
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After defeating the Japanese team in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year and successfully defending the title, Zheng Wei, the head coach of the Chinese women's basketball team, threw out a resounding sentence: "Entering the Olympic Games is a task that we must complete." ”
Facing the camera, the whole team also smiled and said: "Chinese women's basketball team, see you in Paris." ”
Today, that promise has become a reality.
The picture shows the Chinese team celebrating after the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Photo by China News Service reporter Luo Yunfei
A total of 16 teams participated in the women's basketball qualification tournament for the Paris Olympics, divided into four regions, and the top three teams from each region qualified for the Olympic Games. The Chinese team is in the Xi'an region of China with the New Zealand team, the French team and the Puerto Rico team.
Ahead of the start of the tournament, hosts France and the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup champions USA have already qualified for the Paris Olympics.
On the evening of the 10th, the Puerto Rico team defeated the New Zealand team 69-67. According to the relationship between victory and defeat, the Chinese women's basketball team locked the ticket to the Paris Olympics in one round of games in advance, becoming the first team in China's traditional "three balls" project to get a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
At that moment, the team achieved the biggest goal of the trip and completed the "task that must be completed" in Zheng Wei's mouth.
Image source: Chinese Basketball Association
忧
But on the same day, the Chinese team suffered its first international defeat since the 2022 Women's Basketball World Cup.
No. 2 and No. 7, this is the current world ranking of the two teams, and the game should have been a strong conversation. However, in the face of the return of world-class pitcher Marlene Johannes, the Chinese women's basketball team was lost. 50:82, 32 points of loss, a bit glaring.
"Sorry, we played a very stinky ball for the Chinese New Year. At the 15-minute post-match press conference, Zheng Wei chose to use this sentence as the opening sentence.
In all fairness, the overall strength of the New Zealand and Puerto Rico teams is far below that of the Chinese women's basketball team, and only the match against the French team can test the current form of the Chinese team.
As it turns out, the girls haven't found the best version of themselves yet.
The picture shows Chinese women's basketball player Li Yueru attacking with the ball. Photo by Zhang Yichen
Before the team went to the Olympic qualifying tournament, Zheng Wei emphasized that the Chinese women's basketball team is not currently a world powerhouse, "The team's performance trend has been rising in the past two years, but there are still many shortcomings. ”
In retrospect, this statement is not just a humble statement.
On the road to success, the Chinese women's basketball team, with an average age of 25.75 years old, is still trying to learn how to overcome all difficulties.
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After a big loss, there are voices questioning the gold content of the Chinese team as the world's second.
Won the World Cup runner-up again after 28 years, broke the curse of not reaching the semifinals of the competition, regained the Asian Cup championship after 12 years, and defended the Asian Games champion...... These achievements are enough to become a footnote to the improvement of the strength of the Chinese women's basketball team. In the past two years, they have become the best team in Chinese sports in the "three balls" event.
Honor has a price, in the sharing of Yao Ming, chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, the players of the women's national basketball team in 2023, excluding the league, training camp and national team competitions, only have less than 2 months of personal time, and on average, they can't even guarantee basic weekends.
The Chinese women's basketball team cannot be said to be without hard work. But the laws of competitive sports remain, and any team's results will fluctuate in waves.
Many people said that the quality of the Chinese team's training this time was not as good as in the past, resulting in a big loss.
In fact, during the training camp, the coaching staff realized that the high-intensity defense of European and American teams would bring trouble to the Chinese women's basketball team, which has been accustomed to the rhythm of Asian basketball games for some time. To this end, the team invited the men's basketball team to sparring during the training camp in Qingyuan, Guangdong.
However, the French women's basketball team players are extremely talented, and their desperate runs and steals still make it difficult for the Chinese women's basketball team to adapt.
Image source: Chinese Basketball Team
The results cannot be changed, and there are only two things that the Chinese women's basketball team can do: learn from experience and improve themselves.
'Losing definitely has a negative impact on the players, but good teams adjust very quickly. Zheng Wei still believes that the team can adjust its form in the shortest possible time.
A day later, the girls who set off again also found their familiar selves as they wished.
In the final game, facing the Puerto Rico women's basketball team, which has also entered the Paris Olympics, the Chinese team took the initiative on the court after the start, and continued to impact the opponent's defense through smooth cooperation, and finally won the victory.
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Trying to focus on the present is what makes the team go further.
"We came out of the trough step by step, won the World Cup runner-up, and regained the Asian Cup. In the eyes of Li Meng, the core of the team, setbacks will not make the Chinese women's basketball team lose confidence, but urge everyone to continue to do a good job and grow in tempering.
Image source: Chinese Basketball Association
Throughout the three games, the Chinese women's basketball team exposed problems such as poor cooperation, limited tactics, and inability to take advantage of advantages. With about half a year to go until the Paris Olympics, this is not a bad thing.
For the young Chinese women's basketball team, it is expected to consolidate its self-confidence with more victories, but there is no need to be afraid of losing, and the team still has the opportunity and time to check and fill in the gaps. There are so many possibilities for this team to be tapped, and they can reach so much more than that.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team won all the group stages. In the quarterfinals against the European powerhouse Serbia, the girls with little experience in the tournament suffered a reversal in the final quarter and missed the semi-finals.
After that race, the team began their preparations for the Paris Olympics. With the further improvement of the replacement of the old and the new, the players have significantly improved their technical and tactical level and psychological ability to resist pressure.
This summer, the Chinese women's basketball team will usher in the 10th Olympic Games in history. This time, the purposeful "fighters" are eager to make up for the regrets left behind in Tokyo and live up to their expectations with results.
Image source: Chinese Basketball Team
"Some of the players are in very good physical condition and I hope that after the Olympics they can really become the 'golden generation'. Before the start of this competition, Zheng Wei said.
30 years ago, the Chinese women's basketball team became the world runner-up in the World Championships (the predecessor of the World Cup), and those players were also known as the "94 Golden Generation".
At that time, Zheng Wei, as a team member, witnessed the most glorious era of the Chinese women's basketball team. Now, she and the younger generation of female basketball players are writing their own stories.
The picture shows the players of the Chinese team throwing head coach Zheng Wei in celebration. Photo by Shi Chunyang from China News Service
The qualifying round is the last international women's basketball tournament before the Paris Olympics. Talking about future plans, Zheng Wei said that she hopes that the team can participate more in international competitions, better adapt to the intensity of European and American teams, and accumulate experience.
Doing a good job every day and working towards the goal of becoming a real world powerhouse, the desire of the Chinese women's basketball team has not changed. This qualifying tournament sounded the alarm for the Chinese women's basketball team, but it can be seen from the game that the team's fighting spirit is still there.
Steady and far-reaching, and then promising. Chinese women's basketball team, see you in Paris.
Source: China-Singapore Sports