Zhang Changning (; born 6 November 1995) is a Chinese indoor volleyball and beach volleyball 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. They are one of the leading and most successful sq ...

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

Personal life

She was born in

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

and raised in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. She is the daughter of Zhang Yousheng, 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 competed twice in the Olympic Games, ...

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

. Along with her

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

teammates

Hui Ruoqi Hui Ruoqi (; born 4 March 1991) is a former Chinese volleyball player. She is the Outside Hitter and the fifteenth Captain of China women's national volleyball team, and plays for Jiangsu. She retired in 2018. Early life On March 4, 1991, Hui ...

and

Gong Xiangyu Gong Xiangyu (; born 21 April 1997) is a Chinese volleyball player. On club level, she plays for Jiangsu. Personal She was born in Lianyungang to a P.E. teacher mother who was once a national épée champion, and a policeman father who used to p ...

, she attended

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NNU or NJNU; ) is a public research university in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher normal schools in China, and has become a research-intens ...

. 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 in 2009, and with Ma Yuanyuan 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 the current head coach of China's women's national volleyball team. She is the former head coach of the United States women's national volleyball team. As a p ...

to the national team. She represented China at the 2014 Asian Games. She was part of the Team China that won gold at the

2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup The 2015 FIVB Women's World Cup was held from August 22 to September 6 in Japan. The tournament was a qualification process for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The top two ranked teams, China and Serbia, qualified for the Oly ...

. She represented China at the 2016 Summer Olympics 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 34rd 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 ...

, 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 Olympic gold medalists for China Volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in volleyball Volleyball players at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for China Chinese female beach volleyball players 1995 births Living people Opposite hitters Outside hitters Volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Chinese women {{PRChina-volleyball-bio-stub