Paris Olympics: China volleyball fans lament facing US again – ‘what kind of fate is this?’

China’s women’s volleyball team have been drawn with the US in the group stages of the Olympics for the eighth time in a row but fans remain optimistic they can progress despite having failed to record a victory over the Americans at the Games since Beijing in 2008.

The round-robin pool draw for the Paris Olympics took place in Bangkok on Wednesday, a day before the Nations League finals kicked off, and saw China land in Group A alongside hosts France, the United States and Serbia.

This year, the Olympic volleyball tournament will take on a new format with the winners, runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams from the three pools advancing to the quarter-finals.

“According to the data, since the Beijing Olympics, China have not defeated the US in Olympic competitions,” one Weibo user wrote.

“The worst result for China is that they get third place while striving for second … We need to beat France 3-0 and just try our best to get anything from the US and Serbia games, then hope it’s enough to make it to the quarter-finals.”

China will be expected to beat Serbia and France when the competition gets under way on July 28.