A towering volleyball player who makes her living in Turkey is the unrivalled star of China's squad at the Asian Games in Indonesia.
Zhu Ting is something of an anomaly in China's sporting world, which still largely relies on its highly disciplined and deeply nationalistic sports academies to produce champions who dominate at events such as the Asiad.
Her professional success demonstrates how its athletes are looking for new avenues to develop their talents, and sports administrators are hoping that will spark a resurgence in the country's fortunes after China placed third in the medal standings at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2016, file photo China's Xu Yunli (11) celebrates with teammates Zhu Ting (2) and Yang Fangxu (3) during a women's gold medal volleyball match against Serbia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A towering volleyball player who makes her living in Turkey is the unrivalled star of China's squad at the Asian Games in Indonesia. (AP PhotoJeff Roberson, File)
Despite her already considerable achievements, the 23-year-old Zhu doesn't mask her thirst for greater glory.
"Champion, MVP, best attacker, I've nabbed them all. But still, champion (is my goal)," she said in a recent interview with Hong Kong media. "No one can get too much."
Zhu was the backbone of the women's volleyball team that won gold at Rio, earning her the MVP award.
FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2016, file photo China's Zhu Ting bumps during a women's preliminary volleyball match against Serbia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.A towering volleyball player who makes her living in Turkey is the unrivalled star of China's squad at the Asian Games in Indonesia. (AP PhotoJeff Roberson, File)
That was followed by a move to Vakifbank Istanbul, where she won the Turkish league title last year and was paid a reported salary of more than $1.5 million — making her the world's highest-paid volleyball player, male or female. Unconfirmed reports say Russian club team Dinamo Kazan is prepared to increase that offer for the coming season.
Standing 1.98 meters (6-feet-6), Zhu is the middle of five girls of a family from central China's rural Henan province. She entered the junior national team at 16 and won her first MVP award at the Asian Juniors in 2012. The next year she was promoted to the senior squad by legendary coach Jenny "Iron Hammer" Lang Ping, who is again leading China's squad and continues to sing Zhu's praises.
"We're lucky to have such a gifted athlete as Zhu Ting," Lang said at a charity event late last year. "But not everyone in Chinese women's volleyball team has to be her."
Like her contemporaries, Zhu maintains a lively social media presence, posting July 31 on Facebook, "Can't wait to compete again with my team."
The 18th Asian Games will be held Aug. 18-Sept. 2 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
China, which dominated the medal standings at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, will field a total of 845 athletes. Of those, 631 have no Asiad or Olympic experience in an indication of how China is developing a squad of younger talent in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
"This Asian Games functions as a mid-term test and a valuable experience leading up to Tokyo 2020, and also serves as a comprehensive check on the state of competitive sports in China," Liu Guoyong, director of competition at the State General Administration of Sport, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Among the familiar names is swimmer Sun Yang, winner of 2016 Olympic gold in the 200-meter freestyle and holder of the world record in the 1,500. Having previously won golds in the 1,500 and 400 at London in 2012, Sun has the distinction of being the first man in history to have won Olympic gold in all three of those freestyle events.
Sprinter Su Bingtian, holder of the Asian men's record in the 100 meters, leads the track and field squad, while basketball fans will be looking for a strong performance by Zhou Qi, who last year signed with the NBA's Houston Rockets, the former team of Chinese all-star center Yao Ming.
China's table tennis squad will be boosted by the presence of Ma Long, the Olympic and world champion and holder of the No. 1 ranking for 64 months, the most of any male player. He'll be joined by fan-favorite Zhang Jike, winner of singles and team gold at the 2012 London Games and team gold at Rio.
Talismanic shuttler Lin Dan will be competing in his fifth Asian games at the age of 34, despite a recent string of defeats at the hands of much less experienced — and much younger — opponents.
Some in China have begun to question whether it's time for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic badminton champion to hang up his racket, although the player known as "Super Dan" says he's not bothered by such questions and is determined to battle on.
"I will continue to fight as long as I still have capability and time," Lin told reporters after being knocked out of the BWF World Championships last week.
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If winning gold medals were the only standard, almost all Olympic athletes would be considered failures.
A clinical psychologist with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Emily Clark's job when the Winter Games open in Italy on Feb. 6 is to help athletes interpret what it means to be successful.
Should gold medals be the only measure?
Part of a 15-member staff providing psychological services, Clark nurtures athletes accustomed to triumph but who invariably risk failure.
The staff deals with matters termed “mental health and mental performance." They include topics such as motivation, anger management, anxiety, eating disorders, family issues, trauma, depression, sleep, handling pressure, travel and so forth.
Clark's area includes stress management, the importance of sleep and getting high achievers to perform at their best and avoid the temptation of looking only at results.
“A lot of athletes these days are aware of the mental health component of, not just sport, but of life,” Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is an area where athletes can develop skills that can extend a career, or make it more enjoyable.”
The United States is expected to take about 235 athletes to the Winter Olympics, and about 70 more to the Paralympics. But here's the truth.
“Most of the athletes who come through Team USA will not win a gold medal," Clark said. "That’s the reality of elite sport."
Here are the numbers. The United States won gold medals in nine events in the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. According to Dr. Bill Mallon, an esteemed shoulder surgeon and Olympic historian, 70.8% of Winter and Summer Olympic athletes go to only one Olympics.
Few are famous and successful like swimmer Michael Phelps, or skiers Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn.
Clark said she often delivers the following message to Olympians and Paralympians: This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Focus on the process. Savor the moment.
“Your job is not to win a gold medal, your job is to do the thing and the gold medal is what happens when you do your job,” she said.
“Some of this might be realigning what success looks like," she added. “And some of this is developing resilience in the face of setbacks and failure.”
Clark preaches staying on task under pressure and improving through defeat.
“We get stronger by pushing ourselves to a limit where we're at our maximum capacity — and then recovering," she said. “When we get stressed, it impacts our attention. Staying on task or staying in line with what’s important is what we try to train for.”
Kendall Gretsch has won four gold medals at the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She credits some of her success to the USOPC’s mental health services, and she described the value this way.
“We have a sports psychologist who travels with us for most our season,” she said. “Just being able to touch base with them ... and getting that reminder of why are you here. What is that experience you’re looking for?”
American figure skater Alysa Liu is the 2025 world champion and was sixth in the 2022 Olympics. She’s a big believer in sports psychology and should be among the favorites in Italy.
“I work with a sport psychologist,” she said without giving a name. “She’s incredible — like the MVP.”
Of course, MVP stands — not for Most Valuable Person or Most Valuable Player — for “Most Valuable Psychologist.”
“I mean, she’s very helpful,” Liu added.
American downhill skier Vonn will race in Italy in her sixth Olympics. At 41, she's coming off nearly six years in retirement and will be racing on a knee made of titanium.
Two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister has suggested in jest that Vonn “should see a psychologist” for attempting such a thing in a very dangerous sport where downhill skiers reach speeds of 80 mph (130 kph).
Vonn shrugged off the comments and joked a few months ago that she didn’t grow up using a sport psychologist. She said her counseling came from taping messages on the tips of her skis that read: “stay forward or hands up.”
“I just did it myself,” she said. “I do a lot of self-talk in the starting gate.”
“Sleep is an area where athletes tend to struggle for a number of reasons,” Clark said, listing issues such as travel schedules, late practices, injuries and life-related stress.
“We have a lot of athletes who are parents, and lot of sleep is going to be disrupted in the early stages of parenting,” she said. “We approach sleep as a real part of performance. But it can be something that gets de-prioritized when days get busy.”
Clark suggests the following for her athletes — and the rest of us: no caffeine after 3 p.m., mitigate stress before bedtime, schedule sleep at about the same time daily, sleep in a dark room and get 7-9 hours.
Dani Aravich is a two-time Paralympian — she’s been in both the Summer and Winter Games — will be skiing in the upcoming Paralympics. She said in a recent interview that she avails herself of many psychological services provided by the USOPC.
“I’ve started tracking my sleep,” she said, naming Clark as a counselor. “Especially being an athlete who has multiple jobs, sleep is going to be your No. 1 savior at all times. It’s the thing that — you know — helps mental clarity.”
Ditto Clark.
“Sleep is the cornerstone of healthy performance,” she added.
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FILE Olympic rings are seen in the snow at the Stelvio Ski Center, venue for the alpine ski and ski mountaineering disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
