Zhang Changning (; born 6 November 1995) is a Chinese

indoor volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

player. She is a member of

China women's national volleyball team The China women's national volleyball team () represents the People's Republic of China in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches governed by Chinese Volleyball Association. The team is one of the leading and most successfu ...

. At the club level, she plays for Jiangsu Zenith Steel.

Personal life

She was born in

Changzhou Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhen ...

and raised in

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

. She is the daughter of

Zhang Yousheng Zhang Yousheng (born 5 August 1956) is a Chinese volleyball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984 ...

, a former player of

China men's national volleyball team The China men's national volleyball team ( zh, 中国国家男子排球队) represents China in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, governed by Chinese Volleyball Association. The team now ranks 24th in the FIVB World Ran ...

, and Jiang Hanqiu, a college physical education teacher. Her elder brother Zhang Chen is a current player of

. Along with her

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

teammates

Hui Ruoqi Hui Ruoqi (; born 4 March 1991) is a Chinese former volleyball player. She was an outside hitter and the fifteenth captain of China women's national volleyball team, and played for Jiangsu. She retired in 2018. Early and personal life Hui was ...

and

Gong Xiangyu Gong Xiangyu (; born 21 April 1997) is a Chinese volleyball player. She is the captain of the China women's national volleyball team. On club level, she plays for Jiangsu. Personal She was born in Lianyungang to a P.E. teacher mother who was onc ...

, she attended

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NJNU; zh, p=Nánjīng Shīfàn Dàxué, c=, s=南京师范大学) is a provincial public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the Province of Jiangsu, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Educati ...

. She married basketball player, Wu Guanxi, on 30 July 2022.

Beach volleyball

Although she started as an indoor player, she was offered to join the national beach volleyball team in 2009. As a beach volleyball player she teamed with

Ji Linjun Ji may refer to: Names and titles * Ji (surname), the pinyin romanization of several distinct Chinese surnames * Ji (Korean name), a Korean surname and element in given names (including lists of people with the name) * -ji, an honorific used as ...

in 2009, and with

Ma Yuanyuan Ma, MA, or mA may refer to: Academia * Master of Arts, a degree award * Marin Academy, a high school in San Rafael, California * Menlo-Atherton High School, a public high school in Atherton, California * Minnehaha Academy, a private high schoo ...

in 2010 and 2011 winning the silver medal at the 2011 Asian Beach Volleyball Championship. Later in 2011 she competed with Ding Jingjing at the Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International.

2013 ban

In early 2013 she decided to switch from beach volleyball to indoor volleyball. She was pressured by national and provincial volleyball bureaus to reconsider her decision. Refusing to return to beach volleyball, she was banned from competition and faced a possible early retirement from her athletic career. Due to massive backlash from provincial media, and because of the Jiangsu team's historically low performance in the 2013-2014 season, the ban was lifted on December 29, 2013 and she has since been playing for Jiangsu in the CVL.

Indoor volleyball

In 2014, she was promoted by Coach

Lang Ping "Jenny" Lang Ping (; born 10 December 1960) is a Chinese former volleyball player and coach. She is the former head coach of the Chinese women's national volleyball team and U.S. women's national volleyball team. As a player, Lang won the mos ...

to the national team. She represented China at the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games (), officially known as the 17th Asian Games () and also known as Incheon 2014 (), were a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 19 September to 4 October 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. On 17 April 2007, Incheon was awarded ...

. She was part of the Team China that won gold at the

2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup The 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup, FIVB Women's World Cup was held from August 22 to September 6 in Japan. The tournament was a qualification process for the Volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament, 2016 Summer Olymp ...

. She represented China at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

playing as an outside hitter and an opposite hitter and won the gold medal. She participated at the

2019 Montreux Volley Masters The 2019 Montreux Volley Masters was the 34th edition of the women's volleyball competition set in Montreux, Switzerland. Participating teams Teams: Squads Group stage The first 2 teams of each group qualify for the final round. *''All times a ...

, She was voted CVL's MVP and Most Popular Player in the 2015-2016 season.

References

Sportspeople from Changzhou Volleyball players from Jiangsu Chinese women's volleyball players Olympic gold medalists for China in volleyball Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for China Chinese women's beach volleyball players 1995 births Living people Opposite hitters Outside hitters Volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Chinese sportswomen Asian Games silver medalists in volleyball {{PRChina-volleyball-bio-stub