When it comes to volleyball, one of the three major balls in the world, many Chinese people must be very familiar with it, because the mainland women's volleyball team has fought for the honor of the country many times and ranks very high in the world.
The women's volleyball team is not only a team, but the soul of each girl's hard work and hard work for victory is also known as the "women's volleyball spirit".
There have been many admirable girls in the Chinese women's volleyball team, such as Lang Ping, who is known as the iron hammer.
When he was young, he achieved outstanding results, and his team won the world championship many times, and after retiring, he was hired back to coach the national team, during which he led the women's volleyball team to regain its position at the top of the world.
Today I want to talk about Lang Ping's friend, Zhou Xiaolan, who is known as the "Tiananmen City Wall" in the women's volleyball team.
Zhou Xiaolan showed a talent for volleyball from a very young age, and later passed all the way to the national team.
In the years of participating in the competition, he won the title of "City Wall" with his outstanding performance, and he was also a very good friend with Lang Ping.
It's a pity that he retired bravely at his peak, and later left the United States with her husband for various reasons.
Many years later, when she was asked if she regretted leaving her homeland, she only smiled faintly and said: No regrets.
1. Emerging volleyball talent
Zhou Xiaolan was born in Nanjing in 1957, her parents were high-level intellectuals, and she was sincerely happy with her daughter's arrival.
It's a pity that the parents are usually very busy with work, so they can only entrust their daughter to the elderly to take care of them, and Zhou Xiaolan did not return to her parents until she was 4 years old.
At this time, she happened to meet intellectuals going to the countryside, and she had to follow her mother to the countryside of Shanxi.
The living environment here is far more difficult than imagined, and the young Zhou Xiaolan helps her mother with farm work every day.
Cutting pigweed, carrying water, feeding chickens and ducks, etc., these jobs made Zhou Xiaolan quickly exercised, and she was already very sensible before she was 8 years old.
The school in the mountains is so far away that she has to wake up very early every day to stay late, and she has to go through rough mountain roads on the way.
Zhou Xiaolan gradually adapted to the hard rural life, and everything here did not wear down her will, but made her develop an optimistic and positive character.
In addition, doing farm work all year round and climbing mountain roads also exercised Zhou Xiaolan's physical fitness, and she actually grew to more than 1.7 meters in that era.
As a "giant" among girls, teenage Zhou Xiaolan was favored by the coach of the volleyball team at that time and persuaded her to try playing volleyball on the court.
In this way, Zhou Xiaolan started her fate with volleyball, and for normal volleyball players, she entered the industry a little too late.
However, these are all afterwords in the face of talent, and 16-year-old Zhou Xiaolan is about to amaze people.
After training in the sports school for a period of time, Zhou Xiaolan's results quickly took the lead.
Not only does she have a certain amount of talent, but she also spends a lot of time training every day, which makes her even better than those who start training at a young age.
It didn't take long for her to be selected for the Shanxi provincial team, and a few years later, she defeated her opponent and successfully entered the national volleyball training team.
2. Become the "city wall" of the women's volleyball team
As a volleyball player who is halfway home, Zhou Xiaolan has never slacked off in training, and she knows that she can only make up for the lack of time by working hard.
Fortunately, Huangtian lived up to her wishes, and her outstanding performance was favored by the coach, and she was selected at the first World Youth Volleyball Championship in 1977.
After screening again and again, Zhou Xiaolan was finally set in the list.
The young Zhou Xiaolan has no experience in competitions, but she has the momentum of a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers.
As the team's secondary attacker, her performance amazed everyone, and her superb blocking skills blocked many important balls and won match points for the team.
In the end, they won the runner-up for the country, and Zhou Xiaolan's name is also known to many volleyball fans.
At the second Asian Women's Volleyball Championship two years later, Zhou Xiaolan also contributed wonderful volleyball skills.
She is a strong team player, always able to get the ball to the key points, and on top of that, her individual skills also shine on everyone.
The level of blocking is very strong, and it is almost difficult for the opponent's ball to break through her defense.
After the game, the women's volleyball team not only won the gold medal, but Zhou Xiaolan also won the "Best Performance Award".
Since then, Zhou Xiaolan has participated in many world competitions with the team, and has performed well.
Her blocking skills are even more unique, and people have nicknamed her "Tiananmen City Wall", which means that where she is, it is difficult for opponents to break through the ball.
Zhou Xiaolan's existence is like an iron wall, a blocker who reassures everyone.
3. Retirement at the peak
Whether it is the World Championships or the Olympic Games, Zhou Xiaolan has proved her strength with technology again and again, and has also won many honors for the country with the team.
Her personal strength is obvious to all, and she has become a well-known women's volleyball player like Lang Ping.
Just when everyone thought that she would continue to "go out" for the country, Zhou Xiaolan suddenly announced her retirement.
In fact, Zhou Xiaolan was late when she entered volleyball training, although she was just emerging in her 20s, it was not a small age for volleyball players.
After several years of intensive play, her body gradually sent out signals that she couldn't bear it.
Zhou Xiaolan is also a character who is not willing to lag behind, since the body is no longer adapted to the intensity of the game, retiring in time is the best choice.
After retiring, Zhou Xiaolan was not idle, she went to Shanghai Sports Institute for further study.
Because she joined the volleyball team when she was a teenager and didn't study culture classes well, she now wants to make up for the lack of that year.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Xiaolan's fate with volleyball has not stopped, and in 98, the National Sports Commission invited her to serve as the coach of the women's volleyball team and be with volleyball in another form.
Since Zhou Xiaolan is a volleyball player, she has a deep understanding of the system and the ideas of athletes.
After she entered, she began to make drastic reforms, first changing the women's volleyball management system, and then changing the training methods for athletes.
Since then, she has also optimized the organization of competitions and trained athletes more humanely.
Under her reform, the women's volleyball team has taken on a new look, and its performance has also improved to a certain extent.
However, Zhou Xiaolan knows that the women's volleyball team is still a little short of breaking into the world's strongest team, and that is a strong commander.
This person must know volleyball skills very well, and he must also be able to control the psychology of each athlete and make them twist into a rope.
Zhou Xiaolan thought of Lang Ping who was far away in the United States, at that time she had already settled in the United States and had children, and it was indeed difficult to return to China.
After thinking about it again, Zhou Xiaolan decided to go out in person, she flew for more than ten hours to arrive in the United States, and the two good friends burst into tears as soon as they met.
Under Zhou Xiaolan's persuasion, Lang Ping agreed to the request to return to China to teach.
In 1995, the National Volleyball Association officially sent an invitation to Lang Ping, and it was supposed to be Zhou Xiaolan, the proposer, who went to the airport to pick up people, but in the end, the superiors arranged for someone else to go.
Since then, Zhou Xiaolan has understood that serving in the volleyball team and playing games are two different concepts.
Her skill and sweat can easily win trophies, but she can't be as good as a fish in the system.
Zhou Xiaolan, who was already isolated, decided to resign, although she had only been in office for 8 months, during which she had seen through many things.
4. Immigrated to the United States with her husband
After that, Zhou Xiaolan moved to the United States with her husband, where she put down the honor of the best player in the women's volleyball team, put aside the past of the national team official, and became a college volleyball coach again.
Zhou Xiaolan was very calm after washing the lead flower, she gave birth to two daughters with her husband, and started the life of husband and children.
When her daughter grew up, she had a very obvious height advantage, and under the influence of her mother, she began to practice volleyball.
The eldest daughter graduated from the University of Maryland and is a major athlete on the school's volleyball team.
She also participated in many competitions on behalf of the school and won many honors.
The eldest daughter is like Zhou Xiaolan's successor, and she may be able to continue her mother's volleyball path in the future.
Although the youngest daughter did not practice volleyball, she was also slim and very likable.
Years later, someone asked her if she regretted letting go of the honors she had accumulated and the position that others had dreamed of, and came to a foreign country almost cleanly.
Zhou Xiaolan just smiled faintly after hearing this, saying that she had never regretted it.
She didn't feel that she had lost anything, but that giving birth to two children brought her a lot of happiness.
Now 62 years old, Zhou Xiaolan first worked as a volleyball coach in the United States for a few years, and then joined a company as an engineer.
Her life is rich and colorful, and she always acts with her heart.
Lang Ping, who was on the same team as her, returned to his home country to coach many years later, and once again led the women's volleyball team to the top of the world.
Zhou Xiaolan is paying attention to these news, and she said that she will also silently wish the Chinese women's volleyball team a better development behind her back.
summary
As China's first generation of volleyball women, Zhou Xiaolan and Lang Ping's names have been well-known, and the two have won glory for the country with their outstanding volleyball skills, and they have also won the "nickname" given by everyone.
Although life was difficult when she was young, it was this kind of experience that allowed Zhou Xiaolan to have better physical fitness, even if she started practicing volleyball at the age of 16, she could catch up.
After becoming a volleyball star, Zhou Xiaolan was not complacent, but found out in time that her injury was not suitable for continuing to play.
In order not to drag down the development of the entire women's volleyball team, she resolutely decided to retire.
After that, Zhou Xiaolan continued to study in cultural classes and also entered the work of the National Sports Commission.
In fact, this is also the country's recognition of her, but she didn't expect the introverted Zhou Xiaolan to never be able to adapt to this kind of life, and finally chose to resign and go to the United States.
Everyone felt sorry for her, and was it too risky to quit a stable and decent national job and start over in the United States, where there were no roots?
But Zhou Xiaolan said that she never regretted it, she gave birth to a daughter in the United States, and ran a happy family with her husband, although it was dull but very happy.
Everyone has different definitions of happiness and success, and everyone cannot be required by secular standards of success, and the author thinks that this kind of life is more suitable for the introverted Zhou Xiaolan.