Mariafe Artacho del Solar

Born in Peru, Mariafe and her mother migrated to Australia when she was eleven-years-old, joining her older brother and extended family. She spoke limited English and found that sport was an easy way for her to communicate. She began playing volleyball with her sister in Peru, and upon her arrival in Australia, she joined a beach volleyball club in Manly.

Her local talents were soon big news, with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) offering her a scholarship to pursue beach volleyball full time. She moved to Adelaide at 18 to train at the AIS, with an Olympic dream guiding her journey. 

She made her international debut in 2007, competing for Australia at the U19 World Championships in Poland.

She made her Olympic debut as a 22-year-old in Rio, where she competed alongside Nicole Laird. The pair had been competing together for three years, but were unable to clinch a victory in the preliminary rounds. Their partnership ended shortly after, with Mariafe playing tournaments with a handful of different partners before joining forces with fellow Rio Olympian Taliqua Clancy in October 2017.

Together, they have reached the podium 21 times, including at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Women's Championship and the Osaka Open. In their first season together, the pair won the most titles ever won by a team in Australian beach volleyball history. It was with Clancy that she reached her first podium in 2012 in a tournament in Halifax, Canada.

With Taliqua, Mariafe represented Australia at her debut Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018. They breezed through to the semifinals undefeated, and went on to play the final. They battled Canadian duo Humana-Paredes and Pavan, but ultimately went down 2-0, winning a silver medal. 

The duo won a bronze medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Hamburg in July 2019, defeating Swisse due Betschart and Huberli in the bronze medal match. She did, however, injure her knee during the tournament, but battled on to see the event through. Her injury meant that the team did not compete again for another four months. The time off did not affect their team work on the sand at all, winning another title at the Glenelg Beach Open before the end of the year. 

Mariafe and Taliqua had a remarkable Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign, winning silver to earn Australia’s first Olympic medal in the event since Sydney 2000 and just our third medal ever in the sport.

Mariafe and Taliqua's campaign built throughout the two-week tournament, progressing through the pool stages with wins over Cuba and Italy before a tough 2-1 loss to Russian Olympic Committee saw them through to the round of 16 as second in their pool.

The pair lifted their intensity as the knockout stages commenced, defeating China in the round of 16 before knocking off the reigning World Champions Pavan and Humana-Paredes of Canada in a scintillating quarter-final matchup that showcased world class volleyball from both teams. The 21-15 19-21 15-12 victory highlighted the Australian’s championship pedigree.

A straight sets semi-final victory over Latvia saw them assured of Australia’s first Olympic medal in 21 years. A tough final loss (21-15 21-16) against a red-hot USA pair of Alix Klineman and April Ross saw the Australians win silver to get back on the Olympic Beach Volleyball podium for the first time in over 20 years.

Mariafe said it felt surreal to win an Olympic medal after having the fire lit by Nat Cook and Kerri Pottharst decades ago.

“After Sydney 2000 my sister got a postcard from Nat and Kerri saying go for gold, chase your goals – and being the little sister I thought “you know what I’m going to do that,” she recalled.

“That lit my Olympic dream and now 20 years later I’m here on the Olympic podium, it’s unbelievable. We’ve shown so much resilience and strength to just make it to the Olympics and I’m so proud of our whole team.

“These Games were such an unforgettable experience, that had so many challenges but we showed what we are made of to come out with an Olympic medal and hopefully inspired a lot of people back home.”

With dreams of going one better than their silver medals on the Gold Coast and in Tokyo, Mariafe and Taliqua made a solid start to their campaign at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

The pair won through to the gold medal match, where they went down to Pavan and Humana-Paredes, settling for another silver.

With Mariafe suffering from a bacterial infection, the pair finished fourth at the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Mexico.

Mariafe and Taliqua came out firing in the bronze medal play-off against the USA’s Bristen Nuss and Taryn Kloff, taking the first set 21-15.

In a tight second set, the US pair fought back to win 19-21. The Aussies were unable to find their rhythm in the deciding set, with the USA claiming the medal with a 15-8 win.

“Unfortunately I came down with some bacterial infection but I’m super proud of our team – ’T’ really stuck by my side and really stepped up and I couldn’t ask for anything more than that,” Mariafe said.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Mariafe and Taliqua were the only returning medallists from the women's beach volleyball competition at Tokyo 2020. The pair dropped just one game on their way to the semi-finals, where a tight 2-1 loss (22-20, 21-15, 15-12) to Brazilians Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa sent the Aussies to the bronze medal match.

Mariafe and Taliqua weren't able to match it with Tanja Huberli (SUI) and Nina Brunner (SUI), losing 2-0 to grab fourth place.