Mark Williams (born 27 March 1979) is an Australian-born American

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

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. Williams was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

but moved to the United States when he was nine years old. In 1999, while he was at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, Williams trained with the Australian national indoor team. At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in Sydney, was a libero of the squad which placed eighth among 12 participating teams. In 1998 he made his debut in beach volleyball with

Larry Witt Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

where they competed in

Hermosa Beach Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of th ...

. After graduating in 2001, he played in five AVP events that year with several partners. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Williams qualified for the beach volleyball tournament alongside

Julien Prosser Julien Prosser (born 11 June 1972 in Bunbury, Western Australia) is a male beach volleyball player who represented Australia in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996. Australia's most successful player ever, Three Olympic Games – ...

after competing in the FIVB Tour during the 2003 season. They finished in fourth place after losing the bronze medal match to fifth-seeded team

Patrick Heuscher Patrick Heuscher (born 22 December 1976 in Frauenfeld) is a Swiss beach volleyball player. With his partner Stefan Kobel he won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Between 2007 and 2011 he teamed with Sascha Heyer, they finished 17t ...

and

Stefan Kobel Stefan Kobel (born 13 February 1974 in Winterthur) is a Swiss beach volleyball player. With his partner Patrick Heuscher he won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. References Stefan Kobelat the Beach Volleyball Database The Beach V ...

from Switzerland.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Mark 1979 births Living people Australian men's volleyball players Australian men's beach volleyball players American men's beach volleyball players Olympic volleyball players for Australia Olympic beach volleyball players for Australia Volleyball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales