Leigh-Ann is a noted volleyball champion that participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She is an advocate for LGBT rights and served as the ambassador and keynote speaker for the Gay Games in Chicago. Leigh-Ann was born in the year when the South African race riots signaled the beginning of a major resistance against Apartheid. Her father, Derrick, was president of South Africa’s first non-racial volleyball organization, a group that created the first opportunity for black children to play the sport Leigh-Ann herself came to love.