Ciara Gibson-Byrne (born 3 December 1992) is a British-Spanish

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

player playing as a right-wing. Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, to British parents she began playing water polo aged 11. Gibson-Byrne made her debut for the British team as a 17-year-old in 2010 and has played for

CN Mataró Centre Natació Mataró is a Catalan sports club from Mataró, Barcelona created in 1932. It is active in swimming, water polo, table tennis and triathlon. The men's and women's water polo teams play in the División de Honor Masculina and the ...

in the

División de Honor de Waterpolo The Spanish water polo championship has been contested since 1912. The current league format was introduced in 1965. The top division is currently known as the División de Honor and consists of twelve clubs. The current champions (2021–22 season ...

and for the City of Manchester club based in the

Manchester Aquatics Centre The Manchester Aquatics Centre, abbreviated MAC, is a public aquatics sports facility south of the city centre of Manchester, England, north of the main buildings of the University of Manchester near Manchester Metropolitan University. It was ...

. She played in the World League for the GB team in 2010, the World University Games in 2011 and was a member of the team which qualified for the 2012 European Championships, the first GB team to enter the games for 15 years. She scored in every game, finishing joint top British scorer on seven. In 2012, as the youngest member of the team, she was selected to represent Great Britain in the

2012 London 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 ...

, the first ever Olympic GB women's water polo team. She also represented Great Britain at the 2013 World Championships and at the 2014 European Championships in Budapest, being the highest goal scorer of her team with 10 goals.

Club career

She started her career in 2006, in

. In 2010, she moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

to join Great Britain. She then returned to CN Mataró in 2012.

References

External links

* 1992 births British female water polo players Living people Sportspeople from Barcelona Sportspeople from Newcastle upon Tyne Olympic water polo players for Great Britain Water polo players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Spanish people of British descent {{UK-waterpolo-bio-stub