China's women's volleyball team turns to its youth, as it looks to move up the gears in preparation for next year's Olympics

No longer a dominant force on the world stage, the current generation of Chinese women's volleyball stars is fighting hard to return to the podiums of international events and repeat the glories of their predecessors. However, from what we saw in 2022, it's clear that the developing Team China still has a long journey ahead of it.

Two sixth-place finishes, respectively at the FIVB Women's World Championship in October and the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) in July, were the best results that the Chinese women's volleyball team were able to muster in 2022.

The team, currently ranked No 5 in the world, is well aware of the gap between it and the world's top teams, such as Italy, which defeated Team China 3-1 at the quarterfinal of the world championship, and World No 1 Serbia, which took the world championship title. The young Chinese squad values all of the experiences it gained through the international games it played in 2022, especially the defeats.

"It's important that we have more chances to play against strong teams like Italy. To face the world's top teams, or even defeat them, we need to find more effective ways of playing. So, that experience of competing against them is valuable," Team China head coach Cai Bin told Xinhua.

"From the very beginning, when we started to build this team, team spirit is what we valued the most. I think we did well from that perspective, but in terms of the gap in skill, we cannot level-up overnight, and it will take some time to keep improving.

"We need to be more aggressive in the future and find a tactical balance of attack and defense. We must build a good system, otherwise we won't have any advantage when we play against the world's strongest teams."

Fans awaiting the resurgence of Chinese women's volleyball miss the days when Team China was capable of winning Olympic gold and world championships, like they did under former head coach Lang Ping at Rio 2016, and the World Cups in 2015 and 2019.

A painful turning point arrived at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the team failed to emerge from the group stages.

The shock early exit was China's worst Olympic showing in volleyball since its debut at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, leading to the resignation of legendary coach Lang.

"We faced unprecedented uncertainty ahead of the Tokyo Olympics due to the pandemic, and no one had experience. It was such a pity. We should have displayed more of what we had prepared, but we did not, and we need to accept that fact," Lang said on a NetEase show in December.

"But we need to find the solutions. That's how our players can be more mature in the future when they face these problems. I hope the team has more options in the future, but we need to let 2021 go, as the defeat is already history."