‘Jenny’ Lang Ping is probably the most decorated volleyball player to come out of China. Nicknamed the ‘Iron Hammer’, her ferocious serve and precision spiking led China to their first Olympic volleyball gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles games. An ironic twist is that Jenny is now the head coach of the US women’s team, a rival to the favored Chinese team. A week ago while I was watching Jenny run her team through practice, I couldn’t help but to stare in awe as she still was able to spike extremely efficiently as many of her current players were not able to successfully defend her spikes. Every player from 1 to 12 had their fair share of embarrassing moments as a nearly 50 year old woman was toying with them. I remembered jokingly making a comment to our ONS manager that Jenny could probably still play at an effective level.
The point of the Lang Ping introduction is the fact that the Chinese women played the US team tonight. I was extremely curious as to what kind of the reception Jenny would receive as the opposing head coach. While I can’t say I was entirely surprised that Jenny received the loudest cheer, far surpassing any individual or team for that matter of the tournament so far. China didn’t just merely welcome Jenny back; they still remembered her accomplishments and gave her all the love in the world for them. Want to know how important she is? Chinese President Hu Jingtao was in attendance.
In another nail biting game, the US team edged the Chinese in a five set match. While the crowd stayed behind to cheer their home team for a very valiant effort, the noise was definitely on a completely different level as Jenny walked through the mixed-zone and raised her hand in acknowledgement of the crowd’s appreciation. It didn’t matter that she was an enemy, an obstacle in the way of the beloved Chinese team, Jenny was and still is a Chinese legend.
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