John Garcia Thompson (born 8 June 1979 in Palma, Majorca, Spain)[1] is a British beach volleyball player.
, Garcia Thompson is tall and weighs .[1] He competes for the Palma Son Amar club and is coached by Alfredo Zamora.[1]
From 2009 to 2010 Garcia Thompson competed alongside Robin Miedzybrodzki.[2] In 2011 he teamed up with fellow British player Steve Grotowski; the pair achieved a best finish of seventeenth at the 2011 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Open in Shanghai, China.[2] At the 2011 Swatch World Tour Prague Open the pair defeated the top seeded American pairing of Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong 25 - 23, 24 - 22 in the first round of competition but were then beaten 19 - 21, 16 - 21 by Josh Binstock and Richard Van Huizen of Canada in the second round.[3]
Garcia Thompson and Grotowski were selected to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics after being chosen ahead of Gregg Weaver and Jody Gooding.[4] Both pairs competed in the minimum twelve FIVB events require for qualification with Grotowski and Garcia Thompson earning 522 rankings points compared to Weaver and Gooding's 354 points.[4] The pair qualified for the Games despite public funding for the men's event being withdrawn in 2010.[5] [6] Grotowski and Garcia Thompson will become the first ever British men to compete in beach volleyball at the Olympics.[4] [7] The men's event will take place between 28 July and 9 August at Horse Guards Parade.[8] Garcia Thompson said of his selection "For an athlete, there is nothing better than being selected to compete at an Olympic Games".[7]