Zhou Xiaolan

Zhou Xiaolan (simplified Chinese: 周晓兰, born October 9, 1957) is a former Chinese volleyball player who was a starting middle blocker for the Chinese Women National Team which won three Gold Medals in three world competitions in the early nineteen eighties.

In 1984, she was a core member of the Chinese volleyball team which won the Gold Medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics over Team USA. She was beloved by Chinese volleyball fans not only for her skills on the court but also for her dazzling good looks. Fans bemoaned her retirement shortly after the Olympics, at the age of 26.

Zhou was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. In 1973, she entered an amateur sports school to play volleyball, and was enrolled in Shanxi provincial team in the same year. In 1977, Zhou was admitted to the Chinese junior national team, and later, to the Chinese national team.

After retiring in 1984, Zhou studied at Shanghai Sports College and later served in China National Sports Commission and was the vice chief of "balls" section. In 1995, she resigned from the position and went to the United States with her husband. She first served as a volleyball coach at George Washington University. Later she gave up sports career and became an engineer in a medical device company in Maryland. However, she still teaches volleyball and holds classes each week at an adult day care center called CCACC with about 20-50 students in each class.

In 2014, she started her own girls volleyball club (East coast Elite) which is located in Howard County Maryland where she is currently coaching.

She has 2 daughters, Lucy Hou and Mary Hou, who both attended University of Maryland, College Park.