On November 16, 1981, China’s women’s volleyball team won the World Cup in Japan with seven wins in seven matches. It was China’s first world title in any of the three big ball sports. Under coach Yuan Weimin, the team also won the 1982 World Championship and the 1984 Olympic Games.
Its fighting spirit, nüpai jingshen (女排精神), became a national model. Xi Jinping has described it as “the motherland above all, unity and cooperation, tenacious struggle, never giving up.”