Jimu News reporter Xu Ping
On the evening of April 8, Zhu Ting, the former captain of the Chinese women's volleyball team and now playing for the Italian Scandicci women's volleyball team, released a message through her personal social platform that "she will return to the national team during the World Women's Volleyball League."
Screenshot of Zhu Ting's Weibo
Zhu Ting said, "The only purpose of my return to the team this time is to contribute to the qualification of the Chinese women's volleyball team for the Paris Olympic Games. ”
He has not returned to the team since the Tokyo Olympics
After the Tokyo Olympics, Cai Bin officially became the new head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, which is also the second time that the veteran coach, known as "Little Zhuge in the volleyball world", has taken charge of the Chinese women's volleyball team. However, from leading the team to compete in the World Women's Volleyball League in 2022 to leading the team to win the championship in the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. As the main attacker, Zhu Ting has not been able to return to the Chinese women's volleyball team led by Cai Bin.
Zhu Ting (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Ting injured her wrist, but she still insisted on participating in the Olympics despite the injury. However, due to the impact of the injury, Zhu Ting's performance was not ideal, and the Chinese women's volleyball team also set the worst record in the history of Olympic participation. After the Tokyo Olympics, Zhu Ting never appeared on the field again. Although at the 14th National Games held in Shaanxi, the Henan team signed up for her, Zhu Ting did not play.
After the National Games, Zhu Ting went overseas for surgery and announced the start of her journey abroad. On November 3, 2022, Zhu Ting represented the Italian Scandicci women's volleyball team in the regular season of the 2022-2023 Italian Women's Volleyball League. In that game, Zhu Ting came off the bench twice and scored 6 points, which was also Zhu Ting's debut back to the court after 15 months. When fans are happy for Zhu Ting and look forward to her return to the Chinese women's volleyball team. In the next training camp and games, Zhu Ting still missed the Chinese women's volleyball team.
This naturally triggered all kinds of speculation from the outside world, in which Cai Bin and Zhu Ting both explained through the official media, Cai Bin once said, "The door of the national team is always open to her (Zhu Ting)." Zhu Ting responded that her physical fitness and state could not meet the standards of the Chinese women's volleyball team.
Lang Ping strongly persuaded her to dismiss the idea of retiring
What is surprising is that Zhu Ting once applied for retirement. According to Zhu Ting, from the end of last year to the Spring Festival this year, her body was in a period of fatigue, her competitive state had seriously declined, and she was even unable to cope with daily competitions, "plus since the Tokyo Olympics, all kinds of gossip and deliberate attacks on me on the Internet have not stopped, and even affected my family, I once lost interest in volleyball and hoped to stay away from the disturbances of right and wrong, so I submitted an application for retirement to the Henan Provincial Sports Bureau." ”
Zhu Ting and Lang Ping (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
Zhu Ting said that after learning that she had the idea of retiring, the leaders of the Henan Sports Bureau, the State General Administration of Sports and the national team were very concerned, and communicated with themselves many times, enlightened and encouraged themselves, "In the past two years, my mentor Lang Ping (Lang Ping) has encouraged me to return to the national team many times to continue to fight for the country, and when I was at my lowest, she helped me analyze the physical and technical problems many times, and urged me to strengthen physical training and improve sports performance." The improvement in form gave me confidence and I gradually came out of the trough. ”
Driven by various forces, Zhu Ting finally dispelled the idea of retiring, "Now I feel that I am physically and mentally ready, so today (8th) I officially confirmed my return to the national team and once again for the country." I would like to express my gratitude to those who have cared for and helped me during this time. ”
The Chinese women's volleyball team has the final word
At present, Zhu Ting is still competing in the Italian Women's Volleyball League with the Italian Scandicci women's volleyball team in the 2023-2024 season of the Italian Women's Volleyball League. She said that she will work hard to play the last few games of the season, "and then hurry up to recover her physical fitness, keep up with the rhythm of the national team as soon as possible, devote herself to training and competitions, and work hard with the team to qualify for the Paris Olympics for the Chinese women's volleyball team." ”
Zhu Ting (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)
In the days when Zhu Ting was absent from the Chinese women's volleyball team, Cai Bin used a lot of young players on the offensive end, but in addition to Li Yingying's relatively stable performance and output, the other main attacker Wang Yunrui's state has been unstable, and the other newcomers are even more immature and cannot shoulder the burden in the competition for the time being. And whenever the Chinese women's volleyball team is unfavorable in attack, people often think of the final Zhu Ting.
Because of this, in the past 2023, the performance of the Chinese women's volleyball team has been up and down, like a roller coaster: in the World Women's Volleyball League, they fought for a silver medal, and their performance greatly exceeded expectations;
According to the plan, the Chinese women's volleyball team will play in the 2024 World Women's Volleyball League in mid-May, and the world ranking after the game involves the distribution of tickets to the Paris Olympics. For the Chinese women's volleyball team that has not yet qualified for the competition, it must go all out. It is gratifying that at this critical time, Zhu Ting is back. "As soon as I return to the national team, I will devote myself to training wholeheartedly and unreservedly, as a senior player to set an example for the younger players, and in the games I will do my best to contribute to the team. Zhu Ting once said this, let's cheer for her together!