The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games September 6-17, 2008
The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games September 6-17, 2008
In front of thousands of screaming fans on Sunday evening, the Chinese Sitting Volleyball team took Paralympic gold for the second time in a row, thanks in large part to the skills of 37-year-old Shen Yuhong, China's best spiker.
Sitting Volleyball first appeared on the Paralympic roster at the Arnhem Games in 1980, and has since enjoyed growing popularity all around the world. Sitting Volleyball is similar to Volleyball for able-bodied people, but is played on a smaller court with a lower net. Players must be sitting at all times, but are able to do everything else that standing Volleyball athletes can do, and more (Sitting Volleyball players are allowed to block the other team's serves).
All Sitting Volleyball players in the Paralympics have locomotor problems, but fans watching the game are so swiftly mesmerized by the smooth, fast-paced action that it is easy to forget that these athletes have disabilities.
"I ask them to be sportswomen on the court. There is no disabled athlete on the court. I demand them to get ready not only in their spirit, but also in their physical strength as much as the ordinary athletes," said Ma Dongmei, coach of the Chinese Women's team when describing her players.
Shen is one of the Chinese players that has shown amazing athletic and mental might, pushing her teammates to do the best they can on the court. Considered the 'soul' of the Chinese team, she "relaxes their stress every time when they feel nervous."
At the age of 10, Shen began training in a sports school in Nantong, Jiangsu province. She showed a lot of promise throughout her formative years and in 1984, only three years after she began training, became a member of the provincial team.
Despite her parents' protests, she continued to play for the Jiangsu team. Her parents were worried about the strain of following such a demanding path, but it had always been her hope to play in the Olympic Games for China.
It looked like her dream would soon come true. At the age of 18, she was invited to join the national youth team of China as a Volleyball player.
However, it seems her parents' concerns were not completely unfounded. Two years after she began training with the national youth team, when she was 20-years-old, she was severely injured in practice. Her left leg was hurt so badly that doctors had to surgically install two 12-centimeter long pins in her knee; she would never be able to walk properly again.
Mentally, she took her new physical situation quite hard. It took her several years to accept the fact that she now had a disability and had to learn to live with it.
When she finally did pick herself up, she continued her education at a Nanjing school, majoring in sports.
In 2002, when Sitting Volleyball was founded in Jiangsu, she was invited to take on the post as head coach of the team. One year under her guidance and the Jiangsu team took gold in the Chinese National Games for the Disabled.
As Sitting Volleyball gained popularity, Shen also grew in fame. She was soon recruited for the national Sitting Volleyball team, playing in the starting lineup at the front right corner as the main attacker. Not long after, with Shen at the head, the nascent Chinese Sitting Volleyball team, in their first Paralympic appearance, took home the gold in Athens 2004.
In 2008, Team China did not let their fans down, defeating the United States to defend their title. "It is so perfect to win the 'gold inlaid with jade' [the gold medal] in the Mid-Autumn Festival in my motherland," Shen said after leading her team to the top of the podium during the national holiday. It was the cherry on top of the cake for the Chinese after cruising through the Sitting Volleyball tournament without losing a single set.
