Female Beach Volleyball - Lucy Boulton, Great Britain Volleyball Player

The 26-year-old from Essex has only been involved with the sport for a few years, having begun playing volleyball at school. She then moved into beach volleyball in 2006, as she felt that there would be better career prospects by choosing that route.

With her England debut aged 17, Boulton went on to have five full seasons playing on the FIVB World Tour alongside playing partner Denise Johns.

She has since continued to travel, her powerful serve with her at all times, as the pair embark on training camps and tournaments across the world.

Due to the nature of the sport, the Exeter University graduate is out of the UK for the majority of the year in warm weather locations. However, when she is back on home ground, she trains at the Centre of Excellence for British Beach Volleyball at the University of Bath.

Crowned British Beach Volleyball champions in 2007, 08 and 09, the pair are well on their way to putting in an impressive performance at Horse Guards Parade this summer.

This sporting improvement was highlighted last year, at the Olympic Test Event. The pair finished fourth and beat the World's No.1 ranked pair en route; an achievement that was almost unthinkable just a few years ago.

With fellow Brits and rivals, Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney, also fighting for Olympic qualification, it will be a manic build-up to the Games in July.

A hectic and intense schedule is now well underway for Boulton, including events and training in New Zealand, Los Angeles, Rio, China and Russia to name a few; 2012 is already proving to be a mental and physical challenge.

Despite this, the 2012 hopeful is ready for what the year has to offer and is relishing the prospect of competing in front of a local, home crowd.

Female Beach Volleyball - Denise Johns, Great Britain volleyball player

Denise Johns (born December 9, 1978) is a professional beach volleyball player. She was born in Luxembourg, grew up in the USA, but competes for Great Britain.

Born December 9, 1978 in Ettelbruck in Luxembourg, her father Martin Johns is English, and she has one sister. Her family moved from Luxembourg to Ohio when she was 4 years old. She grew up in Copley, Ohio, and started playing volleyball at the age of 10. She attended Copley High School, where she excelled at swimming, track and volleyball.

She obtained a bachelor degree in architecture from University of Cincinnati, where she concentrated on rowing rather than volleyball.

She graduated in 2002, and moved to Atlanta, playing amateur beach volleyball on the east coast of America. After success in those tournaments she moved to San Diego, California where she played on the AVP tour for four years.

Johns lives in a 175-year old cottage in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, with her husband, Jody Gooding, also a member of the Great Britain team. She still does some work as an architect in addition to her volleyball. Johns and Gooding were married on 4 September 2011 in a ceremony held on the beach in Folly Beach, South Carolina.

Female Beach Volleyball - Liliana Fernández, Spanish beach volleyball player

Liliana Fernández Steiner (born 4 January 1987) is a Spanish beach volleyball player. As of 2012, she plays with Elsa Baquerizo. The pair participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics tournament and were eliminated in the round of 16 by the Italians Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti.

 

Female Beach Volleyball - Elsa Baquerizo, Spanish beach volleyball player

Elsa Baquerizo McMillan (born 25 June 1987) is a Spanish beach volleyball player. As of 2012, she plays with Liliana Fernández. The pair participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics tournament and were eliminated in the round of 16 by the Italians Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti.

Female Beach Volleyball - Angie Akers, professional beach volleyball player from the United States

Angela "Angie" Akers ([née] Harris) (born June 30, 1976) is a professional beach volleyball player from the United States who plays on the AVP Tour. Akers was named the AVP Rookie of the Year in 2002.

Akers played NCAA indoor volleyball for the University of Notre Dame and is the school's all-time career ace and kills leader. After graduating with a BA in Sociology, Akers played professional volleyball in Switzerland for three months. Upon returning home, she decided to give up volleyball and pursue a running career. Her highest accomplishment in running was finishing the 2001 Boston Marathon in 3 hours, 23 minutes.

Akers began her career in beach volleyball in 2002 after moving to Southern California from San Francisco, where she had been working at Lehman Brothers. Since then, Akers has earned $252,127 in prize money and has consistently finished in the top ten in individual and team categories. In July 2007 with Brooke Hanson as her partner, the pair represented the U.S. at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and finished fifth. In 2009 with Tyra Turner as her partner, the duo finished 5th at the FIVB World Championships in Stavanger, Norway.

Akers was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana and attended Bishop Luers High School. She is married to Jeremy Akers, a former professional football player.

Female Beach Volleyball - Zhang Xi, Chinese female beach volleyball player

Zhang Xi (born 19 April 1985 in Jiangsu) is a Chinese female beach volleyball, measuring 183 centimetres (6 ft 0 in) in height. She won the gold medal in the women's team competition at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, partnering with compatriot Xue Chen.

The duo of Zhang and Xue won a gold medal from the FIVB World Tour Women's Final in Åland, Finland, on 21 August 2010, by breaking the record gold-medal winning-streak of Brazil's Franca-Silva duo on that same day. The team of Zhang and Xue are ranked 4th overall on the 2010 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings. Together with her partner Xue Chen, she won the 4th place at the 2012 London Olympics.

 

Female Beach Volleyball - Xue Chen, Chinese female beach volleyball player

Xue Chen (born 18 February 1989 in Fuzhou, Fujian) is a Chinese female beach volleyball player, measuring 191 centimetres (6 ft 3 in) in height. Her hometown is Fuzhou, but she trains in Sanya, Hainan. She has also trained in California under coach Dane Selznick.

Xue began playing basketball as a child, but disliked the physical contact of that sport. She then played indoor volleyball from the age of 10 to 13 before settling into beach volleyball. She began training for her sports career in 2000 at the Fuzhou Sports Training School. In 2002, she attended the Athletic Sports College of Fuzhou and became a member of the Chinese national beach volleyball team. Xue then made her Swatch-FIVB World Tour debut in 2005, playing in two events with You Wenhui and winning the FIVB Top Rookie award for 2006.

Early 2006 Xue became the youngest player to ever win a major event, when on 28 May 2006 the 17-year-old won the $400,000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open.

Later in 2006, Xue and Zhang Xi won the gold medal in the women's team competition at the 2006 Asian Games. The pair also won the bronze medal in women's beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The pair had great success in 2010, which included winning the Grand Slam in Moscow, Russia, for the second time. They also achieved an extraordinary gold-medal win on the FIVB World Tour Women's Final in Åland, Finland, by snapping the record gold-medal winning-streak of Brazil's Franca-Silva duo on 21 August 2010. In 2009 they had won the gold medal in the Asian Beach Volleyball Championships in Haikou, China, and repeated the title in 2010. They then went on to win gold at the Sanya Open in Hainan, the Guangzhou Asian Games, and the Asian Beach Games. The team of Xue and Zhang are ranked 4th overall on the 2010 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings and finished the season ranked first in the FIVB World Rankings. Xue and Zhang represented China in the 2012 London Olympics and ended 4th in the female beach volleyball competition.

 

 

Female Beach Volleyball - Jenny Kropp, American beach volleyball player

Jennifer Kropp (born June 17, 1979 in Grand Island, Nebraska) is a female beach volleyball player from the United States participated at the NORCECA Circuit 2007 at Guatemala playing with Renee Cleary finishing in the 5th position.

She studied at University of Nebraska–Lincoln where she became All Region in 2000 and 2001 and All America Second Team in 2001.

After graduating from college, she played professionally in Puerto Rico, with Vaqueras de Bayamón from Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino two years.

She was named Sexiest Swimsuit Bikini Model Athlete on the 2009 AVP Tour, by the SoCal Beaches Magazine.

Female Beach Volleyball - Anna Vozakova, Russian beach volleyball player

Anna Wosakowa (Анна Возакова Russian, English transliteration: Vozakova Anna, born 27 February 1989 in Leningrad) is a Russian volleyball player.

2009, two Grand Slams played Wosakowa with Yekaterina Chomjakowa. The duo also reached the seventh place at the U23 European Championships in Jantarny. Irina Chaika Wosakowa won bronze in the same year at the Junior World Championships in Blackpool. 2010 she took up with changing partners and missed with Yevgenia Ukolowa at the U23 European Championships in Kos in fourth just a medal. Wosakowa first played in 2011 and again with Chomjakowa was ninth at the Sanya. Since the Grand Slam in Beijing is her partner Anastasia Wassina. The duo arrived at the World Championships in Berlin as group runners-up in the first round and defeated the Italians there Cicolari / Menegatti.