Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the court. Each team also works in unison to prevent the opposing team from grounding the ball on their side of the court.
Natalie Louise Cook is an Australian professional beach volleyball player and Olympic gold medallist. She became the first Australian woman to compete at five Olympic Games.
Kerri Ann Pottharst OAM is an Australian former professional beach volleyball player and Olympic gold medallist.
Reinder Aart Nummerdor is a Dutch volleyball player who represented his native country at five consecutive Summer Olympics. Two times as a member of the indoor volleyball team in 2000 and 2004, and three more times after switching to beach volleyball.
Michael Dodd is an American retired professional beach volleyball player who attended San Diego State University. With his partner Mike Whitmarsh, he won the silver medal in the men's inaugural beach volleyball tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Since winning silver in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he has worked the Olympic Games of 2000 as a beach analyst and 2004 as an indoor analyst for NBC. In 2008, Dodd coached AVP stars Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in the Beijing Olympics. Dodd also captained Team USA to a win over Brazil's best players in the inaugural AVP World Challenge in 2009.
Jacob Spiker Gibb is an American professional beach volleyball player, who currently plays on the AVP Tour with Taylor Crabb as his partner. Gibb and Casey Patterson represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Previously, Gibb and Sean Rosenthal played together from 2006 to 2012. The duo represented Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
Xue Chen is a Chinese beach volleyball player, measuring 191 centimetres in height. A 4-time Olympian, she won the bronze medal alongside Zhang Xi at the women's beach volleyball tournament of the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2013, she won the gold medal also with Zhang at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the first and only Asian team to do so.
Aleksandrs Samoilovs is a Latvian beach volleyball player.
Joshua "Josh" Slack is a male beach volleyball player from Australia.
Joshua "Josh" Binstock, nicknamed Binner, is a male two-time Olympian beach volleyball player from Canada. He competed in the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. He also competed for Canada in volleyball in Israel in the 2001 Maccabiah Games, the 2005 Maccabiah Games, the 2009 Maccabiah Games, the 2013 Maccabiah Games, and the 2017 Maccabiah Games. In 2014, he and his partner were Canadian national champions, his third national championship.
Becchara Palmer is an Australian female beach volleyball player. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the beach volleyball women's tournament.
Louise Bawden is an Australian volleyball and beach volleyball player. She represented Australia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in indoor volleyball, finishing in 9th. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in beach volleyball, but she and team-mate Becchara Palmer did not qualify from the pool stage.
Melissa Humaña-Paredes is a Canadian beach volleyball player, who is partnered with Brandie Wilkerson. The pair represented Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal.
Sarah Lindsey Pavan is a Canadian former beach volleyball and indoor volleyball player. She was part of the Canada women's national volleyball team at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan. With Melissa Humana-Paredes, she won the women's gold medal at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships.
Samuel Schachter is a Canadian Olympic beach volleyball player. In 2010 he won the FIVB World Junior (U-21) Championship with Garrett May. He and partner Josh Binstock were 2014 Canadian national champions, and represented Canada at the 2015 Pan American Games and the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he and Binstock earned silver medals. He is competing with partner Daniel Dearing at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the Men's tournament.
Taliqua Clancy is an Australian volleyball and beach volleyball player who represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in beach volleyball, partnered with Louise Bawden. She is the first Indigenous Australian volleyball player to represent Australia at the Olympics. Clancy plays as a left-side blocker.
Mariafe Artacho del Solar is an Australian beach volleyball player. She represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. Artacho del Solar plays as a right-side defender. According to the Women's FIVB World Rankings, she and partner Taliqua Clancy are ranked 5th as of 21 January 2020.
Evandro Gonçalves de Oliveira Junior is a Brazilian beach volleyball player.
Sarah Marie Sponcil is an American volleyball player for the Grand Rapids Rise of the Pro Volleyball Federation, best known for her beach volleyball career. Sarah competed for the USA Volleyball Beach National Team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Sarah and partner Kelly Claes tied for 9th in their debut Olympics. At 24 and 25, Sponcil and Claes, respectively, were the youngest beach volleyball team to represent the USA since its inception as an Olympic sport in 1996.
Christopher McHugh is a male beach volleyball player from Australia. He represented Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, both with teammate Damien Schumann, winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. Unfortunately, competing at the 2020 Olympics, the pair were knocked out in the group stage after finishing at the bottom of their pool.
