On the evening of June 19, the draw ceremony for the women's volleyball team of the 2024 Paris Olympics was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The Chinese women's volleyball team is in Group A with the host France, the United States and Serbia. This is the second time that the Chinese women's volleyball team has been in the same group as the United States women's volleyball team after the Tokyo Olympics. The Chinese women's volleyball team needs to play at a high level and achieve a good ranking in the group stage to advance to the knockout round.
The Chinese and beautiful women's volleyball teams met again in a narrow way
The World Women's Volleyball League Finals will be held in Bangkok, and the draw ceremony for the women's volleyball group at the Paris Olympics will be held the day before the finals. Feng Kun, the Chinese women's ranking group, attended the draw ceremony and served as a guest at the draw for the last team. In the end, the Chinese women's volleyball team, which participated in the draw as a third-pot team, was in Group A with the host French team, the United States and Serbia women's volleyball team, the teams in Group B included Brazil, Poland, Japan and Kenya, and Group C was Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic.
This is also the Chinese women's volleyball team and the United States women's volleyball team in the same group again after the Tokyo Olympics. In the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese women's volleyball team performed dismally, the main attacker Zhu Ting was affected by a wrist injury and was not in good shape, the whole team was dragged down by injuries and new and old handover problems, and lost to Turkey (0-3), the United States (0-3) and Russia (2-3) suffered three consecutive defeats, missed the knockout round, and set the worst record since participating in the 10 Olympic Games.
The women's volleyball schedule at the Paris Olympics stipulates that the top two teams from each group plus the third place from the best two groups will advance to the quarterfinals. The Chinese women's volleyball team not only needs to fight for the right to qualify from the group, but also needs to strive for a higher ranking and strive to usher in a relatively weak opponent in the knockout round.
The early exposure of the main lineup has become a hidden danger
With the release of the Olympic women's volleyball team, it is widely believed that the Chinese women's volleyball team has drawn the lottery, avoiding strong teams such as Italy, Turkey, and Brazil, and ushering in the United States and Serbia, which have just been defeated in the World League, as well as the host French team, which has fallen to 19th in the world ranking. But looking back at the performance of the last Olympic Games, the women's volleyball teams of the United States and Serbia often played far more than the World Women's Volleyball League on the stage of the Olympic Games. The main lineup of the Chinese women's volleyball team has been exposed in advance in this World League, and the opponent can be deployed in a targeted manner, while the Chinese team cannot understand the lineup of several opponents in advance.
Before the Tokyo Olympics, the outside world generally had expectations for the Chinese women's volleyball team to win medals. But the Chinese women's volleyball team was defeated by the strong side attack of the Turkish women's volleyball team in the first game. After the game, the news of Zhu Ting's long-term wrist injury was exposed in the team, and the Chinese women's volleyball team then faced the United States team, which had previously been defeated in the World League, and was unable to establish an advantage.
During the Paris Olympic cycle, Cai Bin took over the Chinese women's volleyball team and continued to guide Lang Ping to work on the replacement of the old and new teams from the previous term. With the formation of the main lineup of the "Seven Fairies", the Chinese women's volleyball team won the runner-up in the 2023 World League, achieving the best results since the competition. It's a pity that the Chinese women's volleyball team consumed too much physical energy, and the teams deployed targeted tactics one after another, resulting in the Chinese women's volleyball team losing to Canada, the Netherlands and Dominica in the subsequent Olympic qualifying tournaments, and missing the qualifying tournament in advance. In this World League, the Chinese women's volleyball team had to send the main lineup to grab points in every game, and although it finally qualified for the Olympics, the tactics and main lineup were also exposed.
The depth of the Chinese women's volleyball bench will be tested
With the lessons of the Tokyo Olympics and the Paris Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the current task of the Chinese women's volleyball team is to step up the run-in lineup in the more than a month before the start of the Paris Olympic Games, integrate the main players, including Zhu Ting, into the offensive and defensive system, and at the same time try to discover fresh forces and strive to go to Paris with a new tactical combination.
Before the Olympic grouping was released, the 25-member Chinese women's volleyball team for the Paris Olympics was also announced. There are 8 people selected in the main offensive line, in addition to the main players Zhu Ting, Li Yingying, Zhang Changning, Wu Mengjie who played in the World League, as well as Wang Yunrui, Zhong Hui and Wang Yizhu, who fell out of the list after the Brazilian station. Zhuang Yushan also showed a good psychological state in Hong Kong and won a position for herself.
In terms of secondary attack, in addition to captains Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan, and Gao Yi, Yang Hanyu, Zeng Jieya and Wan Ziyue were selected. 20-year-old Wan Ziyue and Zeng Jieya are both 1.96 meters tall, and they were called "Little Yuan Xinyue" when they debuted. In the 2023 U21 World Women's Volleyball Championship, Wan Ziyue helped the Chinese U21 women's volleyball team win the championship as the main assistant attacker and was selected as the best team of the tournament.
In addition to Gong Xiangyu and Zheng Yixin, Zhou Yetong and Sun Jie also entered the list. Zhou Yetong and Gong Xiangyu are both from the Jiangsu women's volleyball team, and Zhou Yetong, who is 1.86 meters tall, served as Gong Xiangyu's substitute in the league. Sun Jie won the title of the best receiver in the U23 Women's Volleyball Asian Championship.
The setter 4 people entered the list this time, Diao Linyu, who had just been the first setter in the World League sub-station stage, Xu Xiaoting, a substitute, and Ding Xia, a meritorious veteran who temporarily left the team due to illness, were selected, and Xie Shengyu became a new face. 20-year-old Xie Shengyu is from the Shandong women's volleyball team, and is known for her sharp attack in the league, so much so that he won the title of "second setter with a knife".
In the free man position, Wang Mengjie and Ni Feifei have been tested on the World League stage. In addition, the 26-year-old Xu Jiannan was selected again. At last year's Chengdu Universiade, Xu Jianan performed well and won the qualification for training for himself.
It can be seen from this training list that the Chinese women's volleyball team's selection idea is to continue to give full play to its height advantage and improve its attack height and strength. In this World League, the Chinese women's volleyball team often builds confidence and advantages through defense in defeating strong teams. It is worth looking forward to whether the Chinese women's volleyball team can show a new style in the short time before the Paris Olympics, prepare new tactics, and surprise fans.
Chinese women's volleyball team 25-member squad:
Main attack: Zhu Ting, Zhang Changning, Wang Yunrui, Zhong Hui, Li Yingying, Wang Yizhu, Wu Mengjie, Zhuang Yushan
Second setter: Diao Linyu, Xu Xiaoting, Ding Xia, Xie Shengyu
Answer: Gong Xiangyu, Zheng Yixin, Zhou Yetong, Sun Jie
Secondary attack: Yuan Xinyue, Yang Hanyu, Gao Yi, Wang Yuanyuan, Zeng Jieya, Wan Ziyue
Free people: Ni Feifei, Wang Mengjie, Xu Jianan
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Chu Peng
Editor/Xu Zhao