Markéta Sluková
Markéta Sluková is a Czech beach volleyball player. She took part in the Summer Olympics twice, finishing fifth in London in 2012, as well as reaching the last 16 of the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016. Outside of Olympic competition Sluková won silver at the 2016, as well as three golds on the FIVB World Tour.
Early career
Sluková competed on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and was named the FIVB Rookie of the Year in 2010 with her partner Kristýna Kolocová. With Kolocová she achieved fifth place at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. During the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Sluková and Kolocová won gold medals at the Prague Open and Berlin Grand Slam, as well as a bronze medal at the Gstaad Grand Slam.Partnership with Barbora Hermannová
From August 2015 until 2021, Sluková played with Barbora Hermannová, and they were coached by Simon Nausch. Their first success was winning gold at the October 2015 World Tour tournament in Antalya. The pair reached the final of the, winning silver after losing in the final to defending champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst. It marked the first time a Czech team had won a European medal in beach volleyball since 2002, and Sluková was named the championship's most valuable player. They took part in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where they reached the round of 16.Although they qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, held in 2021, the team had to withdraw after Nausch Sluková became the fifth member of the Czech team to test positive for COVID-19, just two days before the start of the competition. Due to the same reason, Nausch Sluková did not participate in August 2021's European Championships, and was replaced in the Czech team by Marie-Sára Štochlová. At the end of August 2021 Nausch Sluková announced she was taking a break from the sport to start a family.