Not the Best Day for the Big Red Machine…

For all the Gold Chinese athletes have won so far in these games, yesterday had to hurt. First, in women’s gymnastics (or should that be, in China’s case, children’s gymnastics…?) the United States won Gold (Nastia Liukin) and Silver (Shawn Johnson) in the all around, making up for their humiliating loss in the team competition to China’s Pee Wee team the day before.
But last night was even worse for the Big Red Machine. Traditionally, women’s volleyball has been one of the country’s strengths, and part of the reason for that strong tradition is a woman name Lang Ping, one of the best women volleyball players ever. Known as the “Iron Hammer” during her playing days, she led China to the gold medal in the LA Olympics 24 years ago, where they defeated the United States in the finals.
Now, Lang Ping (known in the US as “Jenny” Lang Ping) is the coach of the US women, and last night, in an extraordinarily dramatic match, she led them to a five set victory over….China.
This was a huge upset. The US women’s team hasn’t been in the top tier internationally in the last few years. And for the home team, the stakes were huge. China was one of the favorites, and they in particular did not want to lose to a US team coached by their former super star.
How big was this match for China? Hu Jintao was there to watch.
The US came from two sets to one down, on China’s home court, to win. Amazing.
Afterwards, Lang told a press conference that,
“It doesn’t matter if we play China, if we play Cuba, if we play Russia. “Every match is the same. I try to be concentrated on the game, not the emotions.” (The operative word there is “try”….)
On the Chinese side, one player, Liu Yanan, said: “Lang Ping is the role model for every Chinese female volleyball player. However, we don’t have special feeling when we play against the United States. She’s now coaching the U.S. team and she has helped them improve and change their style. Still, we played without any special feelings.”
And if you believe that, I’ve got a Forbidden City in the middle of Beijing that I can sell you for a really good price…