Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (born 8 May 1985 in
Riga
Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
) is a
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
n
beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each 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 o ...
player.
He teamed up with
Aleksandrs Samoilovs in 2004. Pļaviņš and team mate Samoilovs represented Latvia at the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
in
Beijing, China
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
after which they stopped playing together.
At the 2008 Olympics, the #21-ranked Latvian team achieved a major upset in the preliminary round, beating the #1-ranked team of
Todd Rogers and
Phil Dalhausser (
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
). Latvian team won its preliminary round group and in round of 16 lost to Austrian team
Florian Gosch and
Alexander Horst.
After the 2008 Olympics, he began playing together with
Jānis Šmēdiņš
Jānis Šmēdiņš (born 31 July 1987) is a Latvian beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game i ...
. At the 2010 European Beach Volleyball Championships, Pļaviņš and Šmēdiņš won the bronze medal. They followed this up by winning the bronze medal at the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. They lost to
Rego and
Cerutti of Brazil in the semi-final but beat
Nummerdor and
Schuil of the Netherlands in the bronze medal match.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Plavins, Martins
1985 births
Living people
Latvian beach volleyball players
Men's beach volleyball players
Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic beach volleyball players for Latvia
Olympic bronze medalists for Latvia
Olympic medalists in beach volleyball
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Beach volleyball players at the 2015 European Games
European Games medalists in beach volleyball
European Games gold medalists for Latvia
Riga State Gymnasium No.1 alumni
Latvian Academy of Sport Education alumni
Sportspeople from Riga
Beach volleyball defenders
Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
21st-century Latvian sportsmen