Shauna Mullin (born 11 September 1984) is a British

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, and former Scottish national indoor

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 ...

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 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 ...

Early life

Mullin was born in South Africa, and first discovered volleyball while living in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Her father was a hotel manager, so Mullin's family moved around a lot while she was a child and she spent time in

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

s. In 1999, her family moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, she took a master's degree in Management with Business Law at

Heriot Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

. A second master's degree followed, in Marketing at the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

Career

She appeared for the Scottish national volleyball team between 2003 and 2006. While at university she appeared for the British team at the World University Beach Volleyball Championships, and joined the British beach volleyball programme in 2006. She began to compete on the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball in 2007. Whilst on the tour, along with her partner Zara Dampney, she sold advertising space on the back of her

bikini A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features two triangles of fabric on top that cover the breasts, and two triangles of fabric on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but exposing the navel, and the back coveri ...

bottoms, hosting a

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...

for

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

Betfair Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company which operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Founded in 2000, the business is split ...

. They competed at the Olympic test event in London, and won all of their group games, but were defeated in the second knockout round by the Brazilian team who went on to win the tournament. They finished in 17th place at the World Championships in 2011, which made them the highest placed British pair. They were knocked out by the reigning Olympic champions,

Misty May-Treanor Misty Elizabeth May-Treanor (; née May; born July 30, 1977) is a retired American professional beach volleyball player. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and , was the most successful female beach volleyball player having won 112 tour ...

and

Kerri Walsh Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. She is the beach volleyball leader in career victories as of 2016 hav ...

. Dampney and Mullin were awarded the host nation place for the beach volleyball at the

in London, where the events are due to take place on

Horse Guards Parade Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London (at grid reference ). It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and the Beating Retreat. Hi ...

. They will be the first British pair to compete in the sport at an Olympic Games since 1996. As of the announcement that they are to compete in the Olympics, Dampney and Mullins were ranked 37th in the world. Unfortunately, although the pairing reached the lucky losers match, they were knocked out by the Austrian pair of Schwaiger and Schwaiger.

References

External links

*
Team Dampney Mullin official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullin, Shauna Living people 1984 births British women's beach volleyball players Scottish women's beach volleyball players Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Bath Sportspeople from Johannesburg Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for Great Britain Scottish women's volleyball players People educated at the Mary Erskine School Women's beach volleyball players