Maria Tsiartsiani

Maria Tsiartsiani
Austrian Masters 2008
portrait
birthday	October 21, 1980
place of birth	Thessaloniki, Greece
size	1.80 m
Partner	2003–2004 Ekaterini Nikolaidou 2005–2008 Efthalia Koutroumanidou 2009–2012, 2014–2015 Vasiliki Arvaniti
successes
2008 - Olympic participant 2012 - Vice European champion 2012 - Olympic participant
(As of November 14, 2016)

Maria Tsiartsiani ( Greek Μαρία Τσιαρτσίανη ; * October 21, 1980 in Thessaloniki ) is a Greek beach volleyball player .

Career

Tsiartsiani gained her first international experience at Challenger tournaments in Xylokastro in 2000 and 2001 , before she played three open tournaments with Polyxeni Kitsou in 2002 . For the next two years she played with Ekaterini Nikolaidou and finished fifth in Osaka . After participating in the 2003 World Cup , the duo reached ninth place at the 2004 European Championships .

From 2005 Tsiartsiani played with Efthalia Koutroumanidou . After another fifth place in Osaka, she and her new partner made it into the top ten of the World Championships in Berlin and won medals at the open tournaments in Espinho and Bali . Two years later it was only enough for 17th place at the World Cup tournament in Gstaad , but the Greek women returned to the top ten at the 2008 European Championship . They then took part in the Olympic Games in Athens and finished ninth in front of their home crowd. A short time later the duo split up.

In 2009 Tsiartsiani formed a new duo with Vasiliki Arvaniti , who started with a seventh place in Brasília . At the World Cup in Stavanger , Arvaniti / Tsiartsiani came second in the knockout round and were eliminated in the round of 16 against eventual world champions Ross / Kessy . Later in the year there was a second place at the Grand Slam in Marseille and two fifth places at open tournaments. In 2010 Arvaniti / Tsiartsiani finished ninth on the World Tour six times before traveling to the European Championships in Berlin . There they had to admit defeat to the Finnish Nyström sisters as group runner-up in the preliminary round in the round of 16 . In the following year they managed to win the group at the World Cup in Rome , but then lost in the first knockout game against the Spaniards Liliana / Baquerizo . The EM in Kristiansand also ended for Arvaniti / Tsiartsiani in the first main round against the Austrians Hansel / Montagnolli . As the best World Tour results in 2011, they achieved two fifth places in Stavanger and The Hague. In 2012 they came to the EM in The Hague after two ninth places in the Grand Slams in China . There they reached the final, in which they - as in the first group game - conceded a defeat against Keizer / van Iersel . The runner-up European champions also qualified for the Olympic Games in London . In a balanced preliminary round, they were eliminated from the group, despite their four points. Their time together ended for the time being with a final seventh place at the Bang Saen Open.

After her baby break, Tsiartsiani played again with Arvaniti from June 2014 to September 2015. At the EM 2015 in Klagenfurt , the Greek women reached fifth place.

Private

Tsiartsiani is married to the German beach volleyball player and coach Christoph Dieckmann . The two have had a daughter Sophia since 2013 and live in Thessaloniki .

Web links

• Profile at the world association FIVB (English)
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)
• Maria Tsiartsiani in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )