Zara Dampney (born 10 June 1986) 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 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 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 ...

, with teammate

Shauna Mullin Shauna Mullin (born 11 September 1984) is a British beach volleyball player, and former Scottish national indoor volleyball player. She was brought up in South Africa and Malaysia, but plays for Scotland and Great Britain. She was chosen as one o ...

Early life

Dampney was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

on 10 June 1986, and lived throughout her childhood in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. She played indoor

whilst a student at

Parkstone Grammar School Parkstone Grammar School (commonly abbreviated to "PGS") is a selective, all-girls academy school in Poole specializing in science and languages, on the southern coast of England. Admissions The school is situated in the northern end of the to ...

, and after school went to the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

where she studied for a law degree. She competed for the British adult team in indoor volleyball at the age of sixteen, and was a member of Wessex Volleyball Club.

Career

After completing her university degree, she made her début on the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball tour in 2009, and was part of the first British team to compete on the tour for a decade. The team finished in ninth position in that event, which remains Dampney's highest finish on the tour. Whilst on the tour, along with her partner Shauna Mullin, 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. Dampney and Mullin were awarded the host nation place for the beach volleyball at the

in London, where the events took 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 were the first British pair to compete in the sport at an Olympic Games. As of the announcement that they were to compete in the Olympics, Dampney and Mullin were ranked 37th in the world. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, they did not qualify from group F, but played well enough to play in the lucky loser match, where they lost to the Schwaiger sisters of Austria.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dampney, Zara Living people 1986 births English women's beach volleyball players British women's beach volleyball players Alumni of the University of Sheffield People from Christchurch, Dorset Sportspeople from Dorset Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for Great Britain Women's beach volleyball players