Cui
Yongmei (CHN) |
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 Cui Yongmei at the '93 Grand Prix final. From Seoul to Atlanta: what a change this girl took! When I first saw Cui Yongmei, she was a back row substitute for Jiang Ying at the '88 Olympics. During China's pool play match against Peru, she entered the court looking young, innocent, and very clumsy. I couldn't make sense of the fact that she jump-served the ball into the net, not once, but thrice in the match. What was the purpose of putting this rookie to serve only to have her make such mistakes? No one was jump serving back in 1988, much less a Chinese player, so what was she supposed to be, a secret weapon gone wrong? Nevertheless, in the third set she did manage to squeak two serves over the net, and amazingly enough, they both led to points for her team. It started to makes sense, a bit... maybe this girl can serve after all. The next time I saw her was a year later, live, at the '89 Junior World Championships in Peru. She rarely jump served though, but she had a mean flat floater, and she knew how to tool very well on the right side. As a lefty, she felt more at ease hitting from position two and one could see that this girl was improving as she strengthened her arms and increased her vertical. |
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seven years later. Cui Yongmei had become part of China's adult
team as early as '93 or '94, but it wasn't until the Atlanta
Olympics that I re-encountered the timid jump server from Seoul
in a revamped form—in
Atlanta, she was amazing! She was quicker, stronger, wittier,
and most of all, she was starring in the Olympic final! Back in
1988, did I ever think that I would see that poor little girl
with the sad face killing balls against nonetheless than Cuba?
Cui Yongmei was soft blocking Regla
Bell very well, or digging Luis's hits, and even
setting the quick ones that He Qi dug herself. As a lefty, Cui
Yongmei excelled at the jump set and the immediate kill, which
worked well against the slower Cuban defensive reflexes. And
even more impressive was her eye for empty spots on the court,
because many times she dinked the ball right where no Cuban
player could get it. It was amazing to see how long this player
had come, and I can only assume that Lang
Ping's tutelage helped her enormously.
Back between '92 and '94, China sunk to its lowest, and Cui Yongmei was beginning to see some starting time precisely when China lost to South Korea at the '94 World's and at the '94 Asian Games. But when Lang Ping became the coach, she seemed to bring the best of Cui Yongmei out, and I am sure that she was incredibly grateful for that. At 26, Cui Yongmei was the oldest player on that Chinese squad that made it to the final in Atlanta. Most of the other players were 22 or younger, so Cui Yongmei also had to act as team mother, even though outside hitters Sun Yue (22) and Li Yan (19) were racking up most of the points. Two years later, at the '98 World's, Cui Yongmei began sharing her position with sensation Qiu Aihua, but Lang Ping inserted Cui Yongmei when she wanted to strengthen ball control, while inserting the youngster for firepower. After losing to Cuba again at the '98 final, Cui Yongmei retired and gave way to newer players who are more power oriented, but hopefully, will also be as complete as Cui Yongmei was in her best days.  Smiling with her teammates, Lai Yawen and Sun Yue, during the '93 Grand Prix.
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