A perfect blend of academics and sport

Six-foot tall Shao Ting is a small forward in the China women’s national basketball team, a powerhouse in the Asian circuit.

Ting achieved great success in the Chinese Basketball league, winning two titles with Great Beijing Wall and was elected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for 2015-16 season.

Her entry to the national fold too was different compared to the others. In China, the players are usually selected from the sports academies, where they are trained from a young age. But in Ting’s case, she did not come from China State’s Sports System but was picked from the Beijing Normal University after guiding them to five titles in the Chinese University Basketball Association (CUBA) championships. Ting is doing her doctorate in education at the institute.

Ting brings with her the invaluable experience of playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) league in the United States. She had signed a training contract with Minnesota Lynx in April this year, which was waived in May as they had to trim the roster to 11 players.

“This year I had the chance to play in the WNBA league. It’s so good for me and it helps me a lot,” Ting said.

China’s assistant coach Michelle Timms believes the exposure that the forward gained during her short stay with the WNBA side will benefit the team immensely.

“Shao played in Minnesota. She had a training contract there. She just missed making into the team. It was a really good experience. Leading up to the championship, she was there for nearly a month and trained with the team,” Timms said.

China is among the favourites to grab top honours in the Division A of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup. They have made a strong start to their campaign, beating newcomers New Zealand 77-48 on Sunday before overpowering Chinese Taipei 102-63 on Monday. Shao was far from impressive in the first game but she bounced back in fine fashion to score 11 points and make four assists in the second.

Meanwhile, China’s head coach Limin Xu is not thinking too far ahead and is focused on winning the group matches.
 
“We try our best to win the game. We play hard and we want good results,” Limin said.

“Every team is good. The coach thinks Australia and Japan are very strong and we should play harder against them. Now our aim is to win the Group games then we can have more opportunities to play and win the championship,” he added.