UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin are adamant that bikinis are their favoured uniform when playing beach volleyball

Record ID: 644389

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin are adamant that bikinis are their favoured uniform when playing beach volleyball
  • Date: 20th July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 19, 2012) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE WITH GREAT BRITAIN MEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM: JOHN GARCIA-THOMPSON AND STEVE GROTOWSKI, TEAM LEADER MORPH BOWES, WOMEN'S TEAM ZARA DAMPNEY AND SHAUNA MULLIN NEWS CONFERENCE DAMPNEY AND MULLIN, (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN WOMEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, SHAUNA MULLIN, SAYING: "Bikinis are what we are most comfortable playing in terms of a good fit for our sport. Obviously we play on the sand and jumping around and running around sweaty in sand in shorts and a tee-shirt - I couldn't imagine being very comfortable or easy to move in so for me the bikini is the most suitable thing to play in - our uniform." DAMPNEY/ DAMPNEY AND MULLIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN WOMEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, ZARA DAMPNEY, SAYING: "I think we both came for indoor backgrounds and the first time we came on the sand it is very different. You know you have nothing to push against when you are jumping up, when you are diving it is hard to get back up, it is hard to run so it is obviously a different style of movement than a lot of people are used to. So we call them "the sand legs" when you put in a lot of hours on the sand your legs just get a lot more used to it and that is what beach volleyball players will have, and that is how their bodies will work." CUTAWAYS OF MEN'S TEAM (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN MEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, JOHN GARCIA-THOMPSON, SAYING: "To play beach volleyball you need proper sand like we have here so it really drains the water so you can really play beach volleyball." (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN MEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, STEVE GROTOWSKI, SAYING: "Depending on the sand it could be the difference between playing Wimbledon on the grass and playing the U.S. Open on a hard court." DAMPNEY/ DAMPNEY AND MULLIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN WOMEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, SHAUNA MULLIN, SAYING: "Having been to Hamburg in Germany where they have an indoor training facility where they are renowned for having like sand which is like quicksand. You can't move even with our "sand legs" we get in there and we are like - whooooah! We can't move and we can't jump and it takes a couple of days for you to get used to it. On the tour we come across tons of different kinds of sand like in Norway it is more gravelly which is not great, (laughter) but then the Olympic sand is the best sand. It's great for us because even though it is a little bit deeper than usual and then some people would like, because we are stronger we do quite a lot in the gym we can run and jump on it quite easily." MEN'S TEAM (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREAT BRITAIN MEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER, STEVE GROTOWSKI, SAYING: "I think the atmosphere around beach volleyball has a party atmosphere but what everybody is coming to see is serious athletes competing at a high level. Maybe that's what makes it such a good combination and why so many people are winding up to come see it."
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABIL7NCQ2I7VQMCPW77X0EHRWD
  • Story Text: Will you promise you will wear bikinis even if it rains? That was the first question to Britain's women Olympic beach volleyball players at a pre-Games news conference on Thursday (July 19); giving a flavour of how the sport is perceived.
    Recent rules to encourage the sport in countries where more modest outfits might be favoured meant that the women players could wear shorts and a t-shirt instead if they wanted to, and some tabloid newspapers wanted assurances that bikinis would still be worn whatever the weather.
    Team GB players Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin were adamant that bikinis were their favoured uniform, and they were not about to don shorts and t-shirts because they would make them feel sweaty.

    "Bikinis are what we are most comfortable playing in terms of a good fit for our sport," said one of the players, Shauna Mullin. "Obviously we play on the sand and jumping around and running around sweaty in sand in shorts and a tee-shirt - I couldn't imagine being very comfortable or easy to move in so for me the bikini is the most suitable thing to play in - our uniform."
    If the weather is wet or below 16 degrees Celsius the players would be allowed to don long leggings to keep warm.
    Dampney explained that playing beach volleyball on sand is more tiring than ordinary volleyball: "The first time we came on the sand it is very different. You know you have nothing to push against when you are jumping up, when you are diving it is hard to get back up, it is hard to run so it is obviously a different style of movement than a lot of people are used to. So we call them "the sand legs" when you put in a lot of hours on the sand your legs just get a lot more used to it."
    The men's team of John Garcia-Thompson and Steve Grotowski say that the quality of the sand is really important, because the difference between two types of sand can be like playing Wimbledon on grass and the U.S. Open on hard court.
    Dampney and Mullin agreed, saying the Olympic sand being spread across Horse Guards Parade, the flat military parade ground close by the Houses of Parliament and Prime Minister David Cameron's back garden, was just right.

    "Having been to Hamburg in Germany where they have an indoor training facility where they are renowned for having like sand which is like quicksand," Mullin said.

    "You can't move even with our 'sand legs' we get in there and we are like - whooooah! We can't move and we can't jump and it takes a couple of days for you to get used to it.

    "On the tour we come across tons of different kinds of sand like in Norway it is more gravelly which is not great, (laughter) but then the Olympic sand is the best sand. It's great for us because even though it is a little bit deeper than usual and then some people would like, because we are stronger we do quite a lot in the gym we can run and jump on it quite easily."
    Dampney added: "We just feel so lucky when that venue was announced, we just couldn't believe it. We were like this is an amazing opportunity and we feel so lucky to be able to play there in front of all those people in an iconic location in London so I think we are just embracing it and obviously seeing it as such a massive thing to represent Great Britain in Great Britain is just amazing."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Video restrictions: parts of this video may require additional clearances. Please see ‘Business Notes’ for more information.
Register