女排精神(nǚpái jīngshén): The fighting spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team

On Sunday, the Chinese women's volleyball team won gold at the Rio Olympic Games. This is their third Olympic gold medal since a Chinese women's team first won Olympic gold in the 1980s.

Over the past more than three decades, a couple of generations of Chinese women's volleyball players have overcome hardships to compete in the Olympics. And the spirit they displayed has been lauded as "the fighting spirit of Chinese women's volleyball team" and praised by the entire country.

In Rio, the Chinese women's volleyball team was assigned to the so-called group of death and faced several strong competitors in the group stage matches. They only reached the quarterfinals as the fourth team in the group, with just two wins in preliminary matches.

But the team never gave up. After an epic comeback against the defending champions Brazil in the quarterfinals, the women then triumphed against the Netherlands in the semis to which they had lost in the preliminaries, before edging a close match against Serbia in the final.

The Chinese women's volleyball team has risen to the top of the podium five times in World Championships, World Cups and Olympics in the 1980s but had faded into obscurity at difficult times.

The crowning of the team in Rio, 32 years after the historic Olympic victory in Los Angeles in 1984, is a vivid portrait of the competitive spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team.

Through ups and downs and fighting along the way, the Chinese women's volleyball team, led by Chinese legendary volleyball player and current coach Lang Ping, has never forgotten its initial dream.

The women truly deserve the gold medal, as they never lost hope and kept on trying.