PARIS, France, August 9, 2024.- Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson have captured silver in beach volleyball at Paris 2024.
The duo fell In the first-ever three-set final in the history of women’s Olympic beach volleyball 24-26, 21-12, 10-15 to top-ranked Ana Patrícia Silva Ramos and Eduarda “Duda” Santos Lisboa of Brazil in Friday night’s gold medal match.
Canada fought off three Brazilian set points – and had a couple of their own – before falling 26-24 in the opening set. The Canadians stormed back in the second, winning 21-12, but dropped the third and deciding set, 15-10.
The medal is Canada’s first in women’s beach volleyball at an Olympic Games and the country’s second ever in the sport. John Child and Mark Heese won bronze in men’s beach volleyball at Atlanta 1996, which was the sport’s Olympic debut.
It’s the second Olympic appearance for both Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson – but their first as a duo. The two formed a partnership in October 2022 and made their debut as a pairing on the Beach Pro Tour in February 2023. They have found quick success together with this Olympic medal joining the silver they won at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
“It’s incredible. I think every athlete wishes to be in a position where they can get a gold medal, to be in the finals, because it takes so much hard work to even just get to this place,” said Brandie. “We are still hungry for that gold medal, because we’re competitors and because we know we belong in that spot just as equally as our fellows, the Brazilians. We continue to bring out the best in each other and we are looking forward to playing them again. But for now we’ll take the silver medal with us with our heads held high, because it’s going to make a difference and have ripple effect for Canada to know that we are one of the best in the world at this sport.”
“It’s taking care of the opportunities you have. It’s taking risks when you have to, and it’s managing the momentum,” Melissa stated. “You know, it was a momentum game and you can’t ever take your foot off the gas. People are going to be coming, they’re going to be your opponents and are there for a reason. They’re there to push you. They challenge you until you’re going to respond. So I think, we let too many sideout opportunities slip and then we had some opportunities to get them back, and we didn’t take advantage of those. It happens. I mean, that’s the game of volleyball, that’s a sport.”
Reaching the gold medal match was anything but easy for the duo. The two finished 1-2 in the preliminary phase, forcing them to play in a lucky loser match in order to reach the next round.
After beating Czechia in two sets in the lucky loser round, Canada pulled off a major upset in the round of 16, eliminating the No. 2 ranked team in the world – Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth of the United States – to qualify for the quarterfinals. After defeating Spain in the quarters, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson had to go up against Tanja Hüeberli and Nina Brunner of Switzerland in the semifinals, a team that hadn’t dropped a single set in Paris.
The Swiss won the first set, 21-14, only to have the Canadians storm back and take a close second set, 22-20. Canada then took the first-to-15 third set, 15-12, to qualify for the gold medal match. That game, in a way, was a reflection of the team’s entire tournament.
Earlier in the day, Hüeberli and Brunner won the bronze medal, defeating Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in two sets.
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