Zhu Ting

Zhu Ting (born 29 November 1994) is a professional Chinese volleyball player.

She is an outside hitter and former captain of the Chinese women's volleyball national team.

In 2007, Zhu, who was 13 years old and 1.7 meters tall at the time, was sent to a sports training school by her high school physical education teacher.

In 2008, she started professional volleyball training in the Henan Province sports school.

After training professionally for two years, Zhu was selected to be on the Chinese Junior National team in 2010.

Since her debut in 2011, Zhu has received 15 MVP awards at all levels of competition (include national team and clubs), particularly the MVP award of Rio Olympic Games 2016.

She is widely regarded as one of the most decorated and successful indoor volleyball players of all time.

She participated in 2011 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship and won a silver medal with the team.

In 2012, she entered the U20 team and won the 2012 Asian Junior Women's Volleyball Championship.

She was also awarded MVP for the first time.

In 2013, she continued to represent China's U20 national team and attended the 2013 FIVB Volleyball Women's U20 World Championship, helping the team win the championship.

Continuing her high-level play, she was eventually awarded the MVP, Best Scorer, and Best Spiker of the tournament.

Zhu entered the Chinese senior national volleyball team for the first time in 2013, having been handpicked by Lang Ping, widely regarded as one of the best coaches in professional volleyball, who returned as the head coach of the team that year.

Zhu participated in her first tournament in 2013 Montreux Volley Masters.

Although the Chinese team finished in sixth place, Zhu was awarded the Best Scorer of the tournament.

She then rose to prominence at the 2013 FIVB U20 World Championship, where she helped the Chinese U20 team to win the title without losing a set.

Zhu was rewarded MVP and Best Outside Spiker in the tournament.

Playing her first Grand Prix at the 2013 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, she helped the team win the silver medal, the first for the team in six years.

Zhu was rewarded Best Outside Spiker of the tournament on her first appearance for the senior team.

Following which, she participated in the 2013 Club World Championship with Guangdong Evergrande winning the bronze medal after defeating Voléro Zürich.

As a core player, Zhu Ting led the Chinese team to silver medal in the 2014 FIVB World Championship, its best result in 16 years.

The Chinese team went through the first two stages with only one loss to the Italian Team.

At the third stage, the Chinese team was crushed by the Brazilian Team in straight sets and faced the Dominican Republic Team.

The Chinese team managed to turn the tables from being two sets down to eventually winning 22–25, 23–25, 25–23, 25–23, 15–12, advancing to the semifinals.

At the semifinals, China avenged their loss at the second stage by defeating Italian team 3-1 to reach the final.

In this match, Zhu scored an impressive 32 points.

At the final the Chinese team lost to the American Team 1-3.

At the tournament Zhu was awarded the Best Scorer as well as the Best Outside Spiker.

In the 2015 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, the Chinese team won all the matches and attained their 13th gold medal of the tournament.

Zhu was awarded the Most Valuable Player and Best Outside Spiker of the tournament.

In the 2015 FIVB World Cup, the Chinese team won their fourth gold medal of the tournament and their first World Title since 2004 Athens Olympics.

Zhu was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and became the third Chinese player since Sun Jinfang and Lang Ping to earn the title.

She played for Vakıfbank Istanbul from 2016 to 2019.

Currently, she plays for Italian club Savino del Bene Scandicci.

Zhu and the Chinese national team have won several gold medals in international competition, including in the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Cup.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics the Chinese team was considered a favorite to win the gold medal since they had won the World Cup the previous year.

However, the team performed unsatisfactorily in the preliminary round with only two wins and three losses, thus the team had to face the top ranked team of the next group and two-time defending gold medalist, the Brazilian Team in the quarterfinals.

She was the highest paid professional volleyball player in the world, male or female, as of the 2018-2019 season.

Zhu Ting was born to a rural family in Henan Province.

She has four sisters (two older sisters and two younger sisters) and her parents do not have any sports backgrounds.