Those who watched the U.S. Women’s Volleyball team garner the coveted Olympic silver medal might have missed one of the truly interesting parts of the squad. It didn’t happen on the hard court, but on the sideline. The American head coach is none other than Lang Ping, the star of China’s gold medal-winning women’s volleyball team of 1984.

Lang Ping, who also goes by Jenny, originally came to the United States in 1996 to study and to “live a normal life” as opposed to always being the center of attention. At 6-foot-2, Jenny Lang Ping is not only symbolically, but physically imposing.

“I’m pretty tall. I can’t hide. It’s just pretty tiring to stay in your room all the time,” Ping said regarding her stature.

Ping poses for the official 2008 National Team website.

Ping has created many volleyball legacies over the years, starting at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. At the time, China was reestablishing contact with the international community as she tried to bump her way out of the murky Cultural Revolution. Although China had won international table tennis competitions by 1984, those achievements were not received with particular enthusiasm, as China’s people had long thought of it as their “own” sport.

The victory China’s women’s volleyball team scored in 1984, with Lang Ping as its largest scorer and star, was the first post-Cultural Revolution Olympic victory China scored in a sport not historically dominated by China.

At the time, Ping was China’s most radiant sports star. Sports stadiums were named after her, a national stamp was released in her honor, and her wedding was even broadcasted on national television.

24 years later, Ping is now a symbol for the cultural exchange of athletes and coaches emblematic of the overall internationalization of elite athletics. At the Beijing Olympic Games, Jenny was warmly received by her fans. In fact, during the showdown between China and America’s volleyball teams, the audience was reported to have constantly switched between US and Chinese flags in honor of their old superstar.

Along with other American coaches serving China’s Olympic Team and Chinese coaches working for the USA’s Olympic Team, Jenny has helped usher in a new age where a transnational exchange of athletic talent is not only accepted but encouraged.