U.S. women's volleyball coach Lang Ping remains an icon in China

BEIJING -- The landscape of Beijing has changed so much lately that Lang Ping, born in China and immortalized on a postage stamp for her accomplishments as a volleyball player and coach, can no longer find her way around unaided.

"I don't know which street. I need GPS," she said. "I ask my sister, 'Where's this?' "

Yet, her return to her homeland as the coach of the U.S. women's Olympic indoor volleyball team feels exactly right to her.

"It's a very unique Olympic Games for me, but I'm not that nervous. I feel back home," she said Tuesday. "It's just a feeling I'm back home. I don't have pressure on me."

As a player, the 6-foot-3 Lang earned the nickname the "Iron Hammer" for her spiking ability. She became a hero in China for leading the women's national team to several World Cup titles, a world championship, and the gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

"It gave people a lot of confidence to have a better life and connection with the world," she said of the impact of the team's initial success, at the 1981 World Cup.

"That's more meaningful than only volleyball or sports."

As a coach, Lang -- who has Americanized her first name to Jenny -- led China to a silver medal in the 1996 Games and a runner-up finish in the world championships. As a rare female coach in a male-dominated profession, she was revered as few before or since -- and she's the only female coach in the Olympic volleyball tournament.

Her current players got a sense of her status when they played in a World Grand Prix tournament in Ningbo, China, three years ago. Nicole Davis recalled seeing Lang's image on billboards and watching Chinese fans hold up her picture alongside American flags in tribute.

"Mothers have thrown children at her so they can touch her," Davis said. "We've had occasions we've had to have bodyguards for her. . . . I don't think there's any parallels to that in the U.S. Not Michael Jordan. It's extremely unique."

As much as Lang appreciated the adulation, she also found it restrictive. After retiring as a player she went to study at New Mexico State.

"I really wanted to taste a normal life," she said. "I couldn't go anywhere. As a Chinese I'm pretty tall and I can't hide. You can't go out in public.

"I thought volleyball is not too popular in the U.S. I can have a pretty normal life."

She became an assistant coach at New Mexico before returning home to coach the Chinese women's team. She later spent six years coaching in Italy. She accepted the U.S. job partly to be close to her teenage daughter, who lives in Southern California.

She quickly learned that differences in culture and athletic philosophy make coaching American athletes very different from coaching their Chinese counterparts.

"The education of the U.S. players is very high and they seem to be very quick in terms of learning," she said. "I have to respect the way they think and in that respect we have to come up with a training program. . . .

"The players set high goals for themselves and that impressed me the most."

The U.S. women's team is ranked fourth in the world, behind Brazil, Italy and Cuba. China is ranked seventh. The women's tournament opens Saturday; the U.S. will play Japan in its opener.

"It's a great honor for me to coach the USA team," Lang said. "The USA is a very strong country for sports. If I can give the USA team more knowledge to get the team better we can show more good volleyball and that is good for the sport."

Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.