Joan Chen’s Lang Ping film screens free before moving to Olympic Channel

Volleyball star is only person to have won Olympic gold as player and coach with victories at Los Angeles 1984 and Rio 2016

Documentary comes ahead of dramatisation of life story, which included controversy of coaching US in Beijing, starring Gong Li

Reading Time:2 minutes

Lang Ping in a still from The Iron Hammer, a new documentary feature to be shown as part of the We Are One: A Global Film Festival. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:46pm, 1 Jun 2020Updated: 10:32pm, 1 Jun 2020

Chinese volleyball legend Lang Ping is the subject of a new documentary on her career which will debut globally this week. The Iron Hammer, named after Lang’s nickname, will be available to watch on June 7 as part of an online film festival.

Lang, 59, was part of the Chinese women’s volleyball team that won gold at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the country’s first major international sporting breakthrough and made her a star back home.

Her legacy was secured as she later coached China’s women to gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 becoming the first and only person to win Olympic volleyball gold as a player and coach.

The 99-minute film will be shown as part of We Are One: A Global Film Festival, organised by New York’s famed Tribeca Film Festival.

We Are One, which is co-organised by 21 of the world’s biggest film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, the British Film Institute and Macau.

More than 100 films from 35 countries will be shown for free on YouTube between May 29 and June 7, with The Iron Hammer one of the final films. Viewers can watch it from 4.30pm Eastern Standard Time (4.30am Monday, Hong Kong Time).