Lang Ping

"Jenny" Lang Ping ( _zh. 郎平, born December 10, 1960), is a former Chinese volleyball player and current head coach of the U.S. women's national volleyball team since February 7, 2005. Her nickname is "Iron Hammer". [cite web|url=http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/08/09/return-of-the-iron-hammer/|title=Return of the "Iron Hammer"|last=Tabuchi|first=Hiroko|date=2008-08-09|publisher="The Wall Street Journal"|accessdate=2008-08-19] She is the U.S. Women's National volleyball team head coach for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2002, she became an inductee of the Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts.cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2005-02-08-notes- _vo. title=China's Lang Ping gets U.S. volleyball post|last=|first=|date=2005-02-08|publisher="USA Today"|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Personal life

Lang Ping was born in Tianjin, China of Manchu ethnicity.

She moved to the United States to study and serve as an assistant volleyball coach at the University of New Mexico. When asked of her move, she said she wanted "to taste a normal life." [cite web|url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/080608dnspoolyvolleyball.438a617.html?npc|title=Lang Ping left China for "normal life"|last=Townsend|first=Brad|date=2008-08-06|publisher="The Dallas Morning News"|accessdate=2008-08-19] She has a 16-year old daughter, Lydia Bai, who is a member of the US Girl's Youth National Volleyball team. [cite web|url=http://www.usavolleyball.org/national/LydiaBaiBio.asp|title=Lydia Bai Bio]

She maintains Chinese citizenship despite living in U.S for more than 15 years. [cite web|url=http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90779/90867/6342656.html|title=Iron Hammer still pounding |date=2008-01-22|publisher="China Daily"|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Playing career

Lang was a member of the Chinese National Team that won the Gold Medal over the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. She was also a member of the team that won World Championship crown in 1982 in Peru and World Cup titles in 1981 and 1985.cite web|url=http://washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/15/us-coach- _pi. title=Lang Ping goes home|last=O'Halloran|first=Ryan|date=2008-08-15|publisher="Washington Times"|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Legacy in China

In China, she is seen as an icon and is one of the most respected individuals in modern day China's sports history. To understand Ping's status in China, one needs to understand China's sporting history. At the end of the 1976 Cultural Revolution, China re-joined sports internationally. Though China won ping-pong internationally, ping-pong was a Chinese expertise. Ping and the women's volleyball team was the first team to win the World Championship multiple times, concluding with the 1984 Olympics. Ping was the star Striker on the team. She will always be remembered as one of the very first world Champions for China. [cite web|url=http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/08/us-womens-volleyball-coach-an-icon-back-in/|title=U.S. women's volleyball coach an icon back in Beijing|last=Lassen|first=David|date=2008-07-08|publisher="Ventura County Star"|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Coaching

Lang Ping was an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico from 1987-89 and 1992-93.

In 1995, Lang became the head coach of the Chinese national team and eventually guided the squad to the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and second place at the 1998 World Championships in Japan. Lang Ping resigned from the Chinese national team in 1998 due to health reasons. In the following year, she took a head coaching position in the Italian professional volleyball league and enjoyed great success there, winning the league championship and the coach of the year award multiple times.

After becoming the US coach in 2005, Lang guided the team to the 2008 Olympics, where the US team faced off with her home country China. The US team defeated China 3-2. The Chinese president Hu Jintao attended the match. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/sports/olympics/16volleyball.html|title=Ex-Chinese Star Guides U.S. to Win in Volleyball|last=Wong|first=Edward|date=2008-08-15|publisher="New York Times"|accessdate=2008-08-16] The match drew 250 million television viewers in China alone. The team went on to win the silver medal, losing to Brazil in the finals 3-1.

Major titles

* World Cup 1981 (World Champion)
* World Championship 1982 (World Champion)
* Los Angeles Olympic Games 1984 (World Champion)
* World Cup 1985 (World Champion)

Honors

* Chinese Top Ten Athletes of the year, 1981-1986
* FIVB Coach of the Year, 1996
* Woman Volleyball Coach in Italy of the year, 1999-2000

References

External links

* [http://www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Competitions/Worldgrandprix/2007/coaches/coaches.asp?TeamCode=USA&sm=27 Lang Ping's profile, Fédération Internationale de Volleyball]
* [http://en.olympic.cn/athletes/serch_L/2003-11-04/3713.html Lang Ping's profile, Chinese Olympic Committee]