Louise Bawden

Bawden was born in Melbourne, Victoria and attended Fintona Girls' School.[3][4] She spent her childhood in Melbourne,[3][4] moving to Canberra when she was sixteen.[3] She then moved to the Netherlands after the Sydney Olympics, returning to Australia in 2003.[3] In 2008, she completed a degree at a university in Queensland.[4] She attended the 2008 Summer Olympics as a fan.[4] As of 2012, she lives in Adelaide.[3][5]

Bawden is 183 centimetres (6 ft 0 in) tall and weighs 72 kilograms (159 lb).[3]

Bawden earned a volleyball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport when she was sixteen years old.[3] As a nineteen-year-old, she represented Australia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in indoor volleyball, where her team finished ninth.[3][4] Following the Sydney Games, she played professional volleyball in the Netherlands until 2003.[3] In 2002, she competed in the World Championships.[3]

Bawden is a beach volleyball player.[3] Following the 2008 Summer Olympics, she approached the Adelaide-based Australian beach volley programme about the possibility of getting into the sport.[4] Following this, in 2009, she became involved with Australia's National Beach Volleyball Program, making a switch from indoor to beach and was initially teamed up with Becchara Palmer.[3][5] That year, she shared the world beach volleyball association top rookie award with Angie Akers, an American.[3]

At the 2009 Mazury Open in Stare Jablonki, Poland, Bawden and partner Palmer finished second. The competition was part of the FIVB World Tour.[3][6] She and Palmer twice won the Australian Championships, once in 2010 and again in 2011.[6]

In 2011, Palmer and Bawden were Australia's number one ranked team,[3] and the duo finished ninth at the 2011 World Championships.[5] With her partner Palmer, she finished seventeenth at the 2011 FIVB Moscow World Tour in Moscow, Russia.[3] With her partner, she finished fourth at the 2011 FIVB Phuket World Tour in Phuket, Thailand.[3]

In 2012, Bawden and Palmer played in 31 matches, winning 20 of them. This increased their world ranking to 16.[3] With her partner, she finished ninth at the 2012 FIVB Brasília World Tour in Brasília, Brazil.[3] With her partner, she finished fifth at the 2012 FIVB Sanya World Tour in Sanya, China.[3] With her partner, she finished seventeenth at the 2012 FIVB Shanghai World Tour in Shanghai, China.[3] With her partner, she finished ninth at the 2012 FIVB Beijing World Tour in Beijing, China.[3] With her partner, she finished ninth at the 2012 FIVB Rome World Tour in Rome, Italy,[3][5][7] which secured her Olympic berth.[5][7] With her partner, she finished fifth at the 2012 FIVB Moscow World Tour in Moscow, Russia.[3]

Bawden was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in beach volleyball,[3][5][7] in June 2012 following a selection process that was 18 months long and involved becoming one of the sixteen top ranked teams in the world.[4][5] Going into the Olympics, her team was ranked fourteenth in the world, but did not qualify from the pool stages.[2][5][7]

She participated in the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio with partner Taliqua Clancy, and made it to the Quarter-finals.[8][9]

• Louise Bawden at the FIVB beach volleyball database
• Louise Bawden at the Beach Volleyball Database
• Louise Bawden at the Australian Olympic Committee
• Louise Bawden at Olympedia