Humana-Paredes & Wilkerson advance to gold medal match with big comeback win

“It feels really great to secure a medal for Canada. We know the colour that we want, but we have this together forever and we hope Canada is proud of that.” — Melissa Humana-Paredes

Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson intended to make history at Paris 2024 and they have delivered.

After a bit of a bumpy start to their tournament, the pair are headed to the gold medal final, guaranteeing Canada’s first Olympic medal in women’s beach volleyball.

Wilkerson offers a window into the pair’s winning mindset:

“When our backs are against the wall, when you’re really getting pinned, Mel and I are good at sticking together and responding. And that’s how we got ourselves into this position.”

Wilkerson continued after a moment of reflection, “We have reasons to back ourselves, reasons to believe that the game is never over until it’s over and to prove it, is probably why it’s just absolutely like, so fulfilling. It’s so rewarding to make yourself proud.”

Just to get into the knockout round, the pair was forced to play in the lucky loser match. But they persevered, beating several top-ranked teams to get to the semifinals. Their remarkable winning ways continued, as they stunned the Swiss team of Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner in three sets.

Humana-Paredes emphatically announced she and Wilkerson are dialed in for Friday’s gold medal match. “We will not give up. We have heart and we have belief in each other and that’s what matters here.”

The Swiss had not dropped a set the entire tournament and continued their dominance early, winning the first set against the Canadians 21-14. 

During a technical time out in the second set, Wilkerson said to Humana-Paredes, “We got this. We fight to the end.” And fight they did, as they staved off a match point, to win 22-20.

Humana-Paredes reflected on the tournament so far and the undeniable strength she draws from Wilkerson.

“It’s been a really big challenge the last week and a half to show up at the Olympic Games in front of thousands of people and not play my best volleyball and really kind of grind through that and have it on display for everybody to see and work through it in the moment. The only person there for me is Brandie and she has been my rock this whole time and I wouldn’t be here without her.”

Third set tie breaks go to 15 points. The tension at Eiffel Tower Stadium was tremendous but both teams remained focused. Normally on the attack with powerful serves, the Swiss team faltered on seven serves in the match.

Canada was relentlessly brilliant, blocking big and digging hard. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson grabbed the tiebreak win 15-12.

With the reality of what they had achieved starting to dawn on the pair, Humana-Paredes reflected on their colossal semifinal victory.

“I think there’s a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve done over the last two weeks. We’ve experienced the highest highs and the lowest of lows and we still have one more day, one more game and we’re not losing sight of that.”

It has been 28 years since a Canadian team won a medal in beach volleyball. John Child and Mark Heese won bronze in the sport’s Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996. Now Team Canada will play in the gold medal match, the first time for a Canadian women’s beach  volleyball Olympic team.