Nickname
Beats or Beastie. (gbwomensvolleyball.co.uk, 23 Apr 2011)
Hobbies
Running, badminton, shopping. (britishperformancevolleyball.org, 06 Jun 2009)
Occupation
Athlete
Education
Pharmacy - University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, GBR
Language(s) spoken
English
Club name
Las Palmas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ESP
Coach
Audrey Cooper [national] (inthewinningzone.com, 01 Sep 2011)
Position and style
Power hitter (britishperformancevolleyball.org, 06 Jun 2009)
Handedness
Right (bringitusa.com, 01 May 2011)
Debut
2007 for Great Britain, against Switzerland (britishvolleyball.org, 20 Jun 2010)
Additional information
Start of sporting career
She took up the sport at secondary school, aged 14. (britishperformancevolleyball.org, 06 Jun 2009)
Ambitions
"Be the best I can possibly be come July 2012." (inthewinningzone.com, 01 Sep 2011)
Training
She does a lot of weights, squats, and explosive work like box jumps. She said, "I'm very springy. I can hang in the air, and work hard at it." (heraldscotland.com, 28 May 2010)
Hero
Ally McCoist. (scotsman.com, 06 Jun 2009)
Most influential person in career
Her family and Sandra Grubb. (britishperformancevolleyball.org, 06 Jun 2009)
Superstitions / Rituals
She always wears long socks on match days, puts her shoes, ankle braces and knee pads on in the same order and listens to 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' by Whitney Houston at least once. (scottishvolleyball.org, 05 Jan 2012)
Sporting philosophy / motto
"A dream you dream alone is just a dream, a dream you dream together becomes a reality." (scottishvolleyball.org, 05 Jan 2012)
Awards
She was captain of the Scottish national team from 2006 to 2008, and has been skipper of Team GB since 2009. (bringitusa.com, 01 May 2011)
General
CHALLENGE
She has played for teams in Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Spain in preparation for the Olympic Games, partly as a way of funding her dream to represent Great Britain. She sees all this as a positive experience, and something that will benefit her at London 2012. "Each experience has been invaluable in its own way, being exposed to different players, learning from different coaches and dealing with different pressures and situations. Every season I face new challenges, from being the only English speaker in the team, to fighting for a starting six position in the team." (inthewinningzone.com, 01 Sep 2011)
OLYMPIC DREAM
Becoming an Olympian is something she has strived for since she was only a child. "My earliest memory of watching an Olympic Games on TV was the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. I was seven years old and vividly remember the day Sally Gunnell won the 400m hurdles title. For Atlanta 1996, I remember being on a family holiday to Aviemore, and I just wanted to stay in every day to watch the Olympics on TV, much to the annoyance of my parents." (heraldscotland.com, 23 Dec 2011)
