U.S. women's volleyball team wins despite grief
BEIJING • They cried, then played, then cried some more.
Members of the U.S. women's indoor volleyball team are undefeated in the Olympics, but their eyes are red, their hearts are heavy and their minds are wandering.The U.S. muscled out a 3-1 win over Japan in Saturday's opener of the Beijing Games, 10 hours after the father of former Olympic team member Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon was murdered in the Chinese capital.
A Chinese man stabbed Todd Bachman to death and seriously injured his wife, Barbara, and a female Chinese tour guide at the Drum Tower before committing suicide by jumping 130 feet off a building.
Eight players based at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs competed with Bachman McCutcheon at the 2004 Athens Games, where she helped the U.S. to a fifth-place finish. USA volleyball is based in Colorado Springs.
And Todd and Barbara Bachman were ardent supporters of the American squad, traveling around the world to watch their 29-year-old daughter, married to U.S. men's indoor volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.
"We all love Wiz," said outside hitter Logan Tom, her eyes filling with tears. "It's hard to put it in words. That's not something that's supposed to happen."
Players were awoken from mid-afternoon naps and told of Todd Bachman's death at a team meeting. Bachman McCutcheon, with her parents during the attack, had e-mailed several players hours earlier, writing "how she was looking forward to coming and watching us," said middle blocker Heather Bown.
"It's something you never expect at an Olympic Games," Bown added. "You come here for the sport and for the athletes, and you have this horrible thing happen."
In her first Olympic match as U.S. coach, "Jenny" Lang Ping tried to keep the incident from being too much of a distraction.
"We had to tell the players to concentrate on the game," said Lang, whose No. 4-ranked team plays No. 3 Cuba on Monday.
Tom called the Bachmans "little USA nomads. They traveled everywhere. They were one of the biggest fans we've ever had."
Libero Stacy Sykora said an "unbelievable family" made Bachman McCutcheon special.
"You have to understand what Liz Bachman is to USA Volleyball," said Sykora, former roommates with Bachman McCutcheon. "She's probably the nicest person in the entire world, her and her family. Her family is like our family."
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