They’re being called the high-altitude bridesmaids, the somewhat inevitable result of marriage between a volleyball and basketball player. Household names both, joined by their contemporaries, it was a society wedding with a sporting theme and some very tall people.
Pride of Nanjing, volleyball player Zhang Changning, married basketball player, Wu Guanxi, in the latter’s hometown of Hangzhou on 30 July. The ceremony was held in the city’s Shangri-La Hotel.
Zhang, 27, who has the nickname, Baby Face, was on the Chinese women’s volleyball team which won the 2015 and 2019 World Cup, as well as gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Wu, 28, plays for Jiangsu Dragons in the CBA. In 2008, the 2.11-metre-tall athlete began playing for the Beijing Olympians and went on to make his first CBA appearance on loan to the Shanghai Sharks.
But the wedding dictated those all-important photographs. For Zhang, at 1.93 metres, that meant finding similarly tall bridesmaids. So she simply cashed in a favour or two with her fellow volleyball players.
Joining her bridesmaid troupe were Liu Xiaotong, 1.88 metres; Li Xiaoyao, 1.86 metres; Jiang Qianwen, 1.82 metres; and Wang Chenyue, 1.93 metres.
Among the many other athletic guests at the wedding was also Zhang’s fellow Nanjing Normal University alumni and volleyball player, Hui Ruoqi. The two friends posed for photos together with taekwondo star, Wu Jingyu, who came to the wedding with her daughter, reports Sina Sports.
Zhang, who hails from Changzhou in our very own Jiangsu Province, lives in Nanjing, and it was here where she met her beau to be, reports The World Journal.
Returning to Nanjing with a foot injury in 2017, Zhang met Wu in a hotel. The groom recalled, “I saw a girl walking slowly down the stairs on crutches. When I saw her back, I sensed she was very slender and tall, and then I became fascinated”. Wu asked Zhang for her WeChat and the rest is history.
Among the many celebrities offering their congratulations to the newly weds was none other than basketball legend and CBA President, Yao Ming. The 2.29-metre-tall star, who also played for the Shanghai Sharks and was the tallest active player in the NBA during his final season, quipped to the groom to “keep your children in basketball, not volleyball”.
