Path to victory
Born in 1994, a national-level poor county in Central China's Henan Province, Zhu Ting is the middle child of five daughters.
Like most of the residents of her village, Zhu's family were not well off when she was growing up. The house they lived in was made of mud and wood and her family earned a living by farming. Her father later opened a car repair shop to support the family.
In 2004, after Zhu graduated from primary school, Zhu's father had intended to send her to a southern city for work. But Zhu said to her father "Nothing is more important than learning; I want to go to school."
Hearing these words, her father decided to let Zhu continue her education at a middle school in Dancheng township, which is 33 kilometers away from their home.
By the age of 13, Zhu had already grown to be 178 centimeters tall, and had shown a great talent for sports. Considering her merely adequate academic performance, her teacher, surnamed Lu recommended Zhu get into sports and introduced her to Zhoukou City Sports School.
Zhu's height, outstanding flexibility and physical coordination made Lu firmly believe that volleyball is her best choice. She was later given a place at the Henan provincial sports school.
During her training at the provincial school, Zhu suffered serious growing pains. She even called her father, saying "Dad, I can't suffer more, I want to quit." her father told Sina Sports.
However, knowing that volleyball could be a path for her and the family to leave poverty, she never went easy on herself in training.
In the nine years after Zhu started volleyball training, she spent only two months in total at home, said her mother. "In the first few years, she always came home with many aches and pains." Zhu's mother told Sina Sports.
But Zhu's persistency and diligence paid off. She soon became the spiker for Henan provincial volleyball team, and was part of the team that won the silver medal in the national U18 competition in 2011. Two years later, she became the MVP at the U20 tournament, and that same year, she met one of the most important people in her life so far, the coach of Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team, Lang Ping.
A political show
Ever since the team won gold at Rio, Zhu has been busy. After coming back to China from Brazil, all Olympic athletes met with national leaders. Afterwards, some of them visited Hong Kong and Macao on an organized tour.
When Zhu finally found some time, she rushed to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, where the provincial sports bureau set up a reception and media briefing for her.
In the weeks after the Games, the 22-year-old only got to talk to her parents on the phone. On September 8, she finally went home to visit her parents and had a private dinner with her family.
Meanwhile, more and more honors flooded to her. The Henan Women's Federation gave her an honorable title that translates to "March 8 red flag bearer." Her family was also honored as "the most beautiful family." Town officials gave her household a tablet that reads "all-conquering spirit." One local real estate developer even offered her family a French-style mansion, to recognize Zhu's exceptional performance in the Olympics.
But the amount of attention given by governments and society to gold medalists has received criticism.
A reporter wrote on Weibo that he noticed that returning Olympic gold medalists are usually greeted at by a line of officials standing with their family, music and fireworks, but that silver or bronze medalists or other Olympians are rarely given any attention at all.
The same could even be said about previous gold medalists. Ye Shiwen, the Olympic women's swimming champion in 2012, also received tons of attention back then. Local businesses even said they wanted to erect a statue of her. But she didn't get any medals this year and her name is rarely mentioned now.
Also, in the local news, so much exposure is given to the officials who are giving things to Zhu's family and little to the Zhu family themselves. Her parents have been swamped by so much government attention that they didn't even have much time to spend alone with their daughter. It led observers to question whether this kind of "show" is good for anything but burnishing the vanity of local officials.
Whether or not it's an opportunistic political show, the exposure has brought real changes to Zhu's family nonetheless. Nowadays, when walking on the streets in the town, her name comes up most frequently and some villagers are talking about having a daughter. "A daughter like Zhu Ting is better than most sons," has become a common phrase in Zhudalou.
