China News Service, Beijing, September 14 (Liu Xingchen) In the 2018 Spain Women's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team lost to the French team in the 5-6 qualifying match and won the sixth place.
Four years have passed, and today's Chinese women's basketball team will start anew and embark on a journey to the World Cup again.
In the face of new challenges, there is a lot to say about the Chinese women's basketball team.
Data map: In the quarter-finals of the women's basketball at the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team lost 70:77 to the Serbian women's basketball team and stopped in the quarter-finals.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Han Haidan
After 4 years of hard work, what has the team experienced?
Rio Olympic Games, the Chinese women's basketball team failed to qualify.
Chen Nan, who was in his thirties at that time, said this: For these young children, some experience and lessons should be learned to lay a better foundation for the future.
And this pain also spurred the team to make changes.
In 2017, WCBA Beijing women's basketball coach Xu Limin took over as the coach of the national team. After the bold idea of using young players was put into practice, Han Xu, Li Yuan and other players began to enter the field of fans.
What followed was the revival of the Chinese women's basketball team.
Data map: In February 2020, in the women's basketball qualifying match for the Tokyo Olympics, Han Xu and his teammates celebrated their victory.
Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
In the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, the Chinese women's basketball team regained the Asian Games championship after 8 years; in the 2018 Women's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team created the smallest loss point difference against the US team since 1983; the women's basketball team qualified for the Tokyo Olympics In the competition, the Chinese women's basketball team defeated the world powerhouse Spain team and secured the Olympic qualification one round in advance; in the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese women's basketball team won the three games with a margin of 56 points, winning all the promotions.
For a long time in the past, the outstanding performance of the Chinese women's basketball team in the international arena has inspired the Chinese people.
After the Tokyo Olympics, Xu Limin said with emotion: "We seem to say goodbye with a failed game, but in fact it is a very perfect Olympic journey. I believe that the Chinese women's basketball team will definitely stand on the podium of the Olympic Games in the future. ."
And this has also become the expectation of many people for the Chinese women's basketball team.
Image source: Li Yueru Weibo
What did the team members gain from studying abroad?
Entering the Paris Olympic cycle, due to physical reasons, Xu Limin no longer serves as the head coach of the national women's basketball team.
Since 2009, Zheng Wei, who has followed the Chinese women's basketball team to the north and south and has assisted three coaches, has stepped to the front desk.
Also in this preparation cycle, Han Xu started her second overseas trip, and with "Little Treasure" Li Yueru also landing on the WNBA stage, "China Derby" has become a new expectation for many basketball fans.
At present, the Chinese women's basketball team has arrived in Australia and entered the competition area for the final sprint preparation.
But for Han Xu and Li Yueru, who returned from the WNBA, the time they spent with the team was not enough.
Image source: Han Xu Weibo
"Han Xu and Li Yueru have improved a lot in terms of self-confidence." Facing the two disciples' overseas studies, Zheng Wei expressed her own evaluation.
In her view, how to better integrate what they have learned in the United States with the team's existing system is a problem that the Chinese women's basketball team needs to face.
And Li Yueru and Han Xu both talked about a word, responsibility.
In the 2018 Women's Basketball World Cup, Han Xu, who was only 18 years old at the time, scored 20 points in the face of the US team, stunning the world.
"In 2018, I came to the world. Now I need to take more responsibility. I hope I can play better this time and bring more help to the team on and off the court."
At the beginning of the WNBA season, Han Xu expressed his hope to practice every training session well and help the Chinese women's basketball team after returning home.
Behind the plain words now is her desire to fulfill her promise.
Compared with Han Xu, the past WNBA season was Li Yueru's first time to play in an overseas league.
Having experienced a higher level of tempering, she bluntly said that she is growing up slowly.
"A lot of things we do now are moving closer to the world's top teams like the United States." Li Yueru said.
Data map: The picture shows the Chinese women's basketball team celebrating their victory.
Image source: Visual China
Going out again, what is the goal?
Starting from May 20th, the Chinese women's basketball team has done a lot to prepare for the Women's Basketball World Cup in the past summer.
In the Tokyo Olympics and last year's Women's Basketball Asian Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team was not very good at controlling its own mistakes, and this has become the first problem the team needs to solve.
"We have conducted targeted training on issues such as breaking the pressure and how to fight against opponents." Zheng Wei introduced the team's preparations.
In her opinion, the outside world's affirmation of the Chinese women's basketball team is gratifying, but the team still needs to base itself on the opponent this time and prepare for difficulties before the game.
"The Chinese women's basketball team will definitely complete this game with the best mental outlook and state." She said firmly.
And this is also an objective positioning based on the current situation of the Chinese women's basketball team.
After the WNBA season, Han Xu and Li Yueru both showed different degrees of injury reactions.
"During the mid-season of the WNBA, I had some fluid accumulation in my right foot. It is also there now, and my body is still a little tired." Han Xu introduced.
Data map: The picture shows Chinese women's basketball player Wang Siyu continuing to play after being injured.
Image source: ICphoto
With veterans Shao Ting and Sun Mengran leaving the team one after another, after adding a number of young players including Yang Shuyu, the Chinese women's basketball team is also in the transition stage.
But for this challenge, the generals of the Chinese team said: full of expectations.
In Han Xu's eyes, the Chinese women's basketball team has the ability to compete with the world's top teams.
"The team's ability is very comprehensive, there are pitchers, players who are good at breaking through, and the inside line is also more characteristic."
As she said, the current Chinese women's basketball players have their own unique characteristics. How to give full play to each person's strengths has long been an important issue for the coaching staff.
In less than 10 days, the Women's Basketball World Cup will start.
At that time, a Chinese women's basketball team with everyone's expectations will set off again.
This time, they were eager to go further.
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