Aleksandrs Samoilovs (born April 6, 1985) is a

beach volleyball 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 ...

player from

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. Samoilovs and teammate

Mārtiņš Pļaviņš Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (born 8 May 1985 in Riga) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. He teamed up with Aleksandrs Samoilovs in 2004. Pļaviņš and team mate Samoilovs represented Latvia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China after ...

, with whom he partnered since 2004, represented Latvia at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing, China. The duo defeated the number 2 seed,

Phil Dalhausser Philip "Phil" Peter Dalhausser (born January 26, 1980) is a Swiss-born American professional beach volleyball player, playing as a blocker. He and his former playing partner, Todd Rogers, were the 2007 AVP Tour and FIVB world champions. Dalha ...

and

Todd Rogers Todd Jonathan Rogers (born September 30, 1973) is an American professional beach volleyball player who is an Olympic and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship gold medalist. He and his former partner, Phil Dalhausser, were the 2007, 2008, 200 ...

, in their first-round game, in what announcers called "the biggest upset in Olympic beach volleyball history." The Latvian team won its preliminary round group and in round of 16 lost to Austrian team Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst. After the Olympics Samoilovs and Pļaviņš stopped playing together. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he teamed with

Ruslans Sorokins Ruslans Sorokins (born 11 March 1982) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. As of 2012, he plays with Aleksandrs Samoilovs. They qualified for 2012 Summer Olympics in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kin ...

, where he again finished in 9th, reaching the round of 16, where they lost to

Jonas Reckermann Jonas Reckermann (born 26 May 1979 in Rheine) is a retired beach volleyball player from Germany. Together with his most recent partner Julius Brink, he won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which, along with Laura Ludwig an ...

and

Julius Brink Julius Brink (born 6 July 1982 in Münster) is a beach volleyball player from Germany, who won the gold medal in the men's beach team competition at the 2006 European Beach Volleyball Championships in The Hague, Netherlands, partnering Christoph ...

of Germany. He now partnering with

Jānis Šmēdiņš Jānis Šmēdiņš (born 31 July 1987) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. From 2008 to 2012 he played together with Mārtiņš Pļaviņš. They won bronze medal at European Championships 2010. Two years later they won bronze medal in 2012 Oly ...

Best achievements

*1st place World Tour 2013 and 2014 * 1st place U-21 World championship * 1st place U-23 European championship * 1st place U-20 European championship * two times Latvian champion * 5th place World tour in Italy in 2007 * 5th place World tour in Spain in 2008 * 9th place Olympic Games 2008 * 9th place Olympic Games 2012 * 1st place European championship 2015

References

External links

* * * * 1985 births Living people Latvian beach volleyball players Men's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players of Latvia Sportspeople from Riga FIVB World Tour award winners {{Latvia-volleyball-bio-stub