Vienna, Austria, July 28, 2017 – Teaming up with Zhang Xi, Chinese star Chen Xue climbed to the top of the beach volleyball world. The duo took home the silver medal of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and became the first Asian team to win the FIVB World Championships in 2013.
Since Xi’s international retirement, later in the same year, Xue has struggled to get consistent results in the World Tour. With four different partners, she had five podium placements in four year,s with no golds.
After missing the 2015 edition of the World Championships because on an injury, the 28-year-old veteran is excited to return to the event in 2017.
“It’s very good to be back”, Xue commented. “I’ve had many different partners over the last years. I have a very young partner now and I changed from blocking to defense, so everything is new for me”.
Pairing 19-year-old Xinxin Wang, the Olympic medalist is confident that the team can display good volleyball in Vienna and get ignited for the upcoming tournaments.
“We’re just getting started and all we want is to do our best”, the Chinese added. “If we perform well, to me that’s already an achievement. We fought for six months to be here because that’s what we most wanted”.
However, Xue and Wang started their campaign with a three-sets loss to USA's April Ross and Lauren Fendrick in the Pool K. The duo will play its second match against Australians Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy on Sunday at 14:00 (local time).