Head held high as she took the court moments after her Chinese team entered the arena, Jenny Lang Ping waved and smiled in several directions then paced around the floor observing China’s championship opponent from Serbia.
She proudly sang through the national anthem, then guided her team to a come-from-behind gold — and made her own history, too.
Lang Ping became the first person to win Olympic volleyball gold as a coach and player, her China team rallying from one set down to defeat the upstart Serbians 19-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 on Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo: AP
“It’s not important to me to make history,” Lang Ping said. “I’m so happy for the young girls, they trained very hard.”
Early on in this tournament, Lang Ping — who captured an Olympic title with the 1984 Chinese national team in Los Angeles then later spent a four-year stint coaching the US — challenged her players to find ways to grow amid their struggles as the world watched.
All along, Lang Ping believed her emotional China players had the talent and determination to compete with the top programs in the world.
Photo: Reuters
And they showed it once they found a groove.
China took a 23-22 lead in the fourth set when Ting Zhu’s kill sent Maja Ognjenovic to the floor with a hard ball to the face, and the match was over shortly thereafter. Lang Ping raised both arms in the air and Fangxu Yang sprinted over to embrace her. Many more hugs followed.
The Chinese exhibited that same fire and fight a year ago while winning the World Cup in Japan, then got to Rio de Janeiro earlier this month and worked through some initial rough, inconsistent Olympic moments.
Photo: Reuters
When they lost their Olympic opener in five sets to the Netherlands on Aug. 6, Lang Ping challenged her players to learn, to support one another through the ups and downs, to grow from each defeat and triumph on the Olympic stage.
China responded, and seemed to play better when the moments got bigger.
“Before the tournament I never thought that we could win the gold,” Lang Ping said. “I was thinking if we were lucky we could win a medal. You never know, our young players, at the beginning of the tournament we didn’t play well, but at important times, we were really lucky we played well.”
China took down the two-time defending Olympic champion Brazilian women on their home turf in Tuesday’s quarter-finals to show that this team had arrived — and, until Saturday night, that had been China’s shining moment.
“With our young team you never know. One day great, one day not,” Lang Ping said. “We just had to be patient.”
JAVELIN
AFP, RIO DE JANEIRO
Thomas Rohler offered Germany a crumb of comfort after their soccer team lost to Brazil in the Olympic final by winning his nation’s first javelin gold in 80 years.
Rohler launched a best of 90.30m for Germany’s first in the javelin since Gerhard Stock won in the 1936 Games in Berlin.
Kenya’s reigning world champion Julius Yego took silver with 88.24m, while defending Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago claimed bronze with 85.83m in a high-class competition.
“We saw the end of the game in the warm-up area,” Rohler said of the soccer. “I’m sorry for Germany, but I’m happy for Brazil.”
Turning to his result, Rohler said: “I woke up with the right feeling this morning.”
“I was feeling maybe it’s the right day for me,” he said. “I was quite excited to throw. I know how to throw 90m and I did it today — 90.30m is really far.”
Ryan Lochte
Reuters, RIO DE JANEIRO
US gold medalist Ryan Lochte on Saturday admitted to Brazil’s largest broadcaster that he had exaggerated his story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro, but insisted he did not lie.
In an interview aired on Globo TV, Lochte apologized to the nation.
“I’m sorry. Brazil doesn’t deserve that,” he said.
He said that he was a victim of extortion because he was forced by armed guards to hand over money.
“I wasn’t lying to a certain extent,” he said. “I over-exaggerated what was happening to me.”
The tale of a gunpoint robbery in Rio initially embarrassed Brazil, which had suffered a series of assaults against visiting government ministers, athletes and tourists, until local police accused Lochte, 32, of making it up to cover up vandalizing a gas station.
Excerpts of an interview with Lochte by Matt Lauer also aired on NBC in the US.
In that interview, he apologized to his swimming teammates, Jimmy Feigen, 26, Jack Conger, 21, and Gunnar Bentz, 20, who police stopped from leaving Brazil over the incident.
When asked what he was feeling when he saw his teammates taken off a plane and held back in Brazil, Lochte responded by saying he was “hurt.”
Bentz released a statement saying Lochte played the key role in the situation, tearing a poster off a wall and arguing with armed security guards at the gas station.
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