Zara Anne Elizabeth Tindall is a British equestrian, an Olympian, and a relative of the British royal family. She is the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal, and Captain Mark Phillips. She is a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and a niece of King Charles III. She was born 6th in the line of succession to the British throne and is now 21st.
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players 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.
Annie Martin is a Canadian beach volleyball player. She has represented her country at the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Her current playing partner is Marie-Andrée Lessard.
Misty Elizabeth May-Treanor is a retired American professional beach volleyball player. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and as of August 2012, was the most successful female beach volleyball player having won 112 tournaments in domestic and international competition.
The United Kingdom has been represented at every modern Olympic Games, and as of the 2020 Summer Olympics is third in the all-time Summer Olympic medal table by both number of gold medals won and overall number of medals. London has hosted the Summer Olympic Games three times: in 1908, 1948, and 2012.
Karina Bryant is a British retired elite judoka, who was active in elite senior competition in the 2000's and early 2010's. She represented Great Britain at four successive Olympics between 2000 and 2012, winning her first Olympic medal, a bronze, in the heavyweight event at her final Games, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She was a seven-time medallist at both the European Judo Championships and the World Judo Championships, and was European Champion on four occasions.
Xue Chen is a Chinese beach volleyball player, measuring 191 centimetres in height. Her hometown is Fuzhou, but she trains in Sanya, Hainan. She has also trained in California under coach Dane Selznick. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics with Wang Xinxin.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012 as the host nation and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. British athletes have competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, alongside Australia, France and Greece, though Great Britain is the only one to have won at least one gold medal at all of them. London is the first city to host the Summer Olympics on three different occasions, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948. Soon, it will be joined by Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028 in hosting the Olympic Games for a third time. Team GB, organised by BOA, sent a total of 541 athletes, 279 men and 262 women, to the Games, and won automatic qualification places in all 26 sports.
Holly Bethan Bradshaw is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the pole vault. She is the current British record holder in the event indoors and outdoors, with clearances of 4.87 metres and 4.90 metres. Bradshaw won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She also won bronze at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, gold at the 2013 European Indoor Championships, bronze at the 2018 European Championships, and silver at the 2019 European Indoor Championships. She also won at the 2018 Athletics World Cup. Coached by Scott Simpson, she has been consistently ranked among the world's best and has been ranked in the world top ten on the Track and Field News merit rankings four times.
The Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International was a women's beach volleyball tournament held at Horse Guards Parade, London, between 9 and 14 August 2011. It was the beach volleyball test event for the 2012 Summer Olympics and was part of the London Prepares series. The tournament, run as an exhibition, was won by the Brazilian pair Maestrini and Vieira. 2,274 tonnes of sand was transported to the parade ground for the event. After the tournament, the sand went to several locations within London to fulfill a legacy promise. The stadium had a capacity of 1,500 spectators. The play was affected by the 2011 England riots.
The British Volleyball Federation (BVF) is the national sports governing for volleyball participation in the UK. It is a Home Nations federation of Volleyball England, Volleyball Wales, Scottish Volleyball and Northern Ireland Volleyball. It lobbies the UK government for funding to help elite volleyball athletes compete internationally.
Shauna Mullin is a British beach volleyball player, and former Scottish national indoor volleyball player. She was brought up in South Africa and Malaysia, but plays for Scotland and Great Britain. She was chosen as one of the two players to take the home nation qualification spot at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
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.
John Garcia Thompson is a British beach volleyball player.
Steven 'Steve' Grotowski is a British beach volleyball player.
Marta Menegatti is an Italian beach volleyball player who plays as a left-side defender with her partner Viktoria Orsi Toth. With former teammate Greta Cicolari, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 4 in August 2012. Her career highlights include two gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour. She is also the 2011 European champion and the 2013 Mediterranean Games champion, both achieved with Cicolari. Menegatti represented Italy at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing fifth and ninth respectively.
Taylor Mackenzie Wilson is a Canadian professional volleyball player. She has won seven Canadian national titles, including the women's volleyball championship in 2014.
Sarah Lindsey Pavan is a Canadian beach volleyball and former 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.
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.
