John Garcia Thompson (born 8 June 1979 in Palma, Majorca, Spain) 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. , Garcia Thompson is tall and weighs . He competes for the Palma Son Amar club and is coached by Alfredo Zamora. From 2009 to 2010 Garcia Thompson competed alongside Robin Miedzybrodzki. In 2011 he teamed up with fellow British player

Steve Grotowski Steven 'Steve' Grotowski (born 30 May 1982 in London) is a British beach volleyball player. , Grotowski is tall and weighs . He is coached by Morph Bowes. He lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, United States and has dual British and US citizenship. ...

; the pair achieved a best finish of seventeenth at the 2011 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Open in Shanghai, China. At the 2011 Swatch World Tour Prague Open the pair defeated the top seeded American pairing of

Casey Jennings Casey Thomas Jennings (born July 10, 1975) is an American beach volleyball player. He teams up with Kevin Wong and has teamed up with Brad Keenan or Matt Fuerbringer during most of his career. He married Kerri Walsh, a beach volleyball player w ...

and

Kevin Wong Kevin Kahn Wong (born September 12, 1972, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a retired professional beach volleyball player. He currently lives in Hawaii and runs a volleyball training program for youth. Personal life Wong graduated from the Punahou ...

25–23, 24–22 in the first round of competition but were then beaten 19–21, 16–21 by Josh Binstock and Richard Van Huizen of Canada in the second round. Garcia Thompson and Grotowski were selected to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics after being chosen ahead of

Gregg Weaver Gregg Weaver (born January 9, 1961) was a former skater who was a part of San Diego's famed skate scene and one of skateboarding's early superstars.Weyland, J. (2002) Answer Is Never, Arrow Books, London. During the resurgence of skateboarding in t ...

and

Jody Gooding Jody Gooding is a beach volleyball player for England and Great Britain who was the youngest-ever British champion. Early life He was born in Gloucester in 1980.

. Both pairs competed in the minimum twelve FIVB events require for qualification with Grotowski and Garcia Thompson earning 522 rankings points compared to Weaver and Gooding's 354 points. The pair qualified for the Games despite public funding for the men's event being withdrawn in 2010. Grotowski and Garcia Thompson will become the first ever British men to compete in

beach volleyball at the Olympics Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games as a demonstration event, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996. The United States is the only country to win medals in every edition. Winning the Olymp ...

. The men's event will take place between 28 July and 9 August at Horse Guards Parade. Garcia Thompson said of his selection "For an athlete, there is nothing better than being selected to compete at an Olympic Games".

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Thompson, John 1979 births Living people British men's beach volleyball players English men's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for Great Britain British people of Spanish descent Men's beach volleyball players