Follow the GBW story from June 2005 until this very day by clicking

here.

June 2005 – Celebrations take place in Trafalgar Square as London wins 2012 host bid

June 2006 - Home Nations Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland join forces to create the Great Britain Women’s Volleyball

Team. Coaches were appointed and players selected through Talent ID training camps.

Year 2007/08 - All selected players relocated to train full-time in the City of Sheffield....

The new home of British Volleyball.

The GBW journey to London 2012 was underway!

First competitive matches for GBW v Albania European Championship Qualifiers 2007

English Institute Of Sport - SheffieldTraining/competition venue for GBW

GBW Trip to Moscow:GB v Luch

GBW travel to Dominican Republic to play their National Team currently ranked 13 in the world.

Year 2008 - the GBW continued to travel the world, competing against some of the worlds top teams in order to develop as a team on the road to London 2012.

A return to Russia meant more toughopposition for the GBW, competing against club team Lenengradska

The GBW participated in the Presidents Cup in Kazakhstan, with the opportunity to win prize money, beautifully demonstrated by our very own Lizzie Reid!

Our first trip to Japan –Tokyo! As well as volleyball, we also took in some of the many wonders of Japan including the Tokyo Tower, and the Kamakura Buddha.

A trip to be remembered for the sheerquality of volleyball played, the worldclass facilities at the Japanese OlympicTraining Centre and undoubtedly theunbelievable strides we took as a team.

Here, the GBW got a tremendous win against Kazakhstan (19) National

Team, the same team that competed at Beijing 2008

Olympic Games!

G WHAT???G.B.

Summer of 2009:

* Audrey Cooper appointed as the new GBW Head Coach*First year of European League Action for GBW

*FISU Games*Kazakhstan Take 2

*Japan Take 2

Lorne Sawula retires as GBW Head Coach and Audrey Cooper appointed as new GBW Head Coach

GBW face FRANCE (42), TURKEY (11) and ROMANIA (33) in their first year of European League, winning sets against Romania and Turkey both home and away.

FISU GAMES, Belgrade

Serbia Kazakhstan 3rd prize

KZ2,250,000

Return to Japan, this

time Osaka!

It is here that we began to evolve the GBW ‘style of play’ being best in class in serve and defence, playing with speed and variation... a work in progress so watch this space!

European Championship Qualifiers 2010 & European League (2)

Serbia (9) Bulgaria (39) Romania (33)

Summer 2010

Number 8 – Team Dynamics Workshop

More top class opposition for the GBW – Exactly what we need!

We established the GBW ‘way of doing things’ in order to:

Be successful at 2012 Olympic Games and be the best we can be, showing anything is possible and put GB Women’s

Volleyball on the map!

Summer 2010 Continued..... Japan National Team visit Sheffield

Having learned some aspects of our style of play from Japanese Volleyball, this was a great opportunity to put it to the test against the team currently ranked 3rd in the world. This was one of many occasions that GBW showed we are capable of competing with highly ranked teams, taking them to 32-30 in one set. Next step.....turning these good performances into wins!!!

Cycled 310 miles from our training base, Sheffield, to London Olympic Volleyball Venue.........EARLS COURT, arriving in London 2 years to the day before the startof the Games. This was all in aid ofraising funds and awareness about our journey to London 2012!!!

Location: SheffieldBefore the epic journey

Location: LONDONArrival In London exactly 2 years before London 2012! Only 5 miles to go to Earls Court.....

Location: Earls Court,London 2012 Volleyball

Venue

CYCLE 250

SUMMER 2010 FUNDRAISING

GB WOMEN TAKE EUROPE BY STORM IN PROFESSIONAL VOLLEYBALL CIRCUIT

Winter 2010 ....

14 out of 19 GBW players seek professional contracts in some of the best leagues in

Europe

WICKSMICHEL

THOM &TAYLOR

CARTER

BRAGG

BEARDSMORENEWTON

BERTELLI

SANDELL

BEATTIE

PALMER & HEALY

MORGAN

2010 - 2011

December 2010 - Despite devastating funding news, the BOA confirm the

GBW host spot at the LONDON 2012

OLYMPIC GAMES..... HOORAY!

September 2010 – GBW receive news

that all funding has

been cut

March 2011 –

500 DAYS TO GO!!!

Countdown Clock erected in TrafalgarSquare to mark 500 days to go until theOpening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games!!!

KEEP TUNING IN TO CAPTAINS CORNER TO FIND OUT HOW THE GBW OLYMPIC JOURNEY CONTINUES.....

HOW?From day one, regular exposure to teams as strong as the calibre of the teams we will face at London 2012, has allowed us to mature and develop very quickly as a team and as individualsto a level where we are consistently competing credibly with the best in the world. However,we are not satisfied with just being able to compete with these teams.....WE WANT TO WIN and this is the missing piece of the puzzle that we will solve in this coming year.

We have played countries from every continent of the world, except South America.... Butthis summer, in just one months time, we will travel to Peru and Argentina to completeour trip of the continents and take on the worlds number 15 – Peru, and the worldsnumber 25 – Argentina, one of which will be a fellow London 2012 competitor. News just in is that we will also compete in the Latina Cup where we will face Thailand and Puerto Rico, ranked 14th and 17th respectively

AIM:Our aim as a team when the GBWVT formed was to progress very quickly to a level where we would be competing credibly against the best teams in the world.

SUMMARY OF GBW ‘Story so far’

“Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.”

Phil Jackson