Editor’s Note: This article was published before Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson advanced to the gold-medal match at the Olympics.
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With Olympic disappointment fresh in their minds two years ago, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson decided it was time for a change.
Playing with different partners, the Canadian beach volleyball stars had both been bounced from competition in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Games. They knew they couldn’t just run it back for Paris 2024, but the alteration they had in mind still resulted in a familiar partnership. The two ex-volleyball teammates were ready to join forces again, albeit in bare feet on the sand instead of court shoes at York University.
Eight years after their four-year run at the school in north Toronto ended, two of Canada’s top beach volleyball players reunited in late 2022 to take a run at the Paris podium.
The reaction to the news from those on campus with them from 2010-14 was overwhelmingly positive.”They were so excited, they were like ‘it’s about time,’” Humana-Paredes, 31, recalled over the telephone recently. “There was a big rejoice, for sure. I think there are a lot of people on this journey with us from back to our college days. A lot of people have been waiting for this moment, just like we have in a way. There was a lot of excitement and just so much support and love, which we’ve felt throughout this whole journey.”
Humana-Paredes and then-partner Sarah Pavan won gold at the 2019 world championship, but after entering the COVID-19-delayed 2021 Olympics as a medal favourite, they came up short in the quarterfinals.
Wilkerson, 32, and Heather Bansley also were eliminated in the Tokyo quarterfinals.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson first bounced around the idea of one day teaming up on the beach in 2016, as alternates on the Canadian Olympic team. It was just informal chatter between friends, but Wilkerson feels that’s where the seeds were planted.
“Maybe it wasn’t to play together, but it was definitely: ‘We both have our eyes set on winning gold at Olympic Games at our time,’” she said. “In pursuit of that, our lives continued to grow in parallel until finally we decided we think it’s our time. We’re very grateful with our past experiences from past partners. I think it shaped us to be the teammates we are now and I truly believe it’s the only way our team has been able to work.
“If we had gone any earlier or later, I don’t know if it would be as magic. Once we had made separate decisions (about) ‘what is working for me as an athlete and as a person,’ and to finally see the door open for both of us at same time, you have to take advantage of the opportunity.”
The Toronto tandem has done just that, climbing to third in the world rankings less than a month before touching a Paris Olympic ball.
The chemistry that’s led to that success was instant. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson finished no worse than fifth in 10 tournaments in 2023, a campaign highlighted by gold in front of partisan fans at their home World Tour stop in Montreal.
It was an entirely different feeling than grinding it out in front of zero fans in Tokyo due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“I think ‘bittersweet’ is the nicest way to put it, for so many reasons,” Humana-Paredes said of 2021. “Just with it being a different Games, the COVIDGames, it kind of felt like a lacklustre experience. It’s not the Olympics you dream of, not the full expression of what the Olympics means and what we were preparing for.
“Not having family and friends there, not being able to support other Canadian athletes, not being able to enjoy the magic of Tokyo. We were kind of just relegated to the village and when you’re [playing] a sport like beach volleyball, there for the entirety of the Games, it can just kind of weigh on you.”
The countdown to Tokyo, with countless COVID-19 tests and strategies to try to avoid infection, also was draining.
“That was kind of a very tense, very rigid experience,” Wilkerson said. “You’re kind of going through the motions of staying safe, and being able to show up healthy. There wasn’t a lot of enjoyment in the lead-up. … The sentiment of a lot of athletes there was ‘I’m so happy I’m here, but I secretly can’t wait for it to be over.’”
Now back playing in front of fans, friends and family, the five-foot-10 Wilkerson and five-foot-nine Humana-Paredes are one of the few elite teams without a player over six feet, but they’ve proven that height isn’t everything.
Part of that is down to the up-front play of Wilkerson, who has been named the best blocker in the world the past three years. The team’s coaches also added several new defensive plays in the pre-season this year to give them more tools in tight matches.
“I think it was a calculated discussion and calculated risk within the team that this is what our baseline was last year as a new team together and now we’re going to level it up,” Humana-Paredes said. “Take what we did last year and add way more to it, specifically on our defence, where we made quite a lot of changes and added quite a few new plays and systems. … It was adding more to what we already knew we could handle. It was exciting because it was like, ‘Sweet, our repertoire is getting bigger and that’s making us a little bit more of a weapon.'”
Now, Huamana-Paredes and Wilkerson get to put all their hard work on display at the picturesque Eiffel Tower Stadium, located at the foot of the famous structure.
The venue is the wallpaper on both of their phones.
“It’s going to be the most epic,” Humana-Paredes said. “We always have some of the best venues at every Olympic Games but I think this one takes the cake.”
But while the scenes will be spectacular, this is a business trip. Their eyes are fixed on the prize.
“The goal is definitely to hit the podium. I think that’s not a stretch for our team,” Humana-Paredes said.
Every work day since they officially became teammates again has been spent finding ways to help make that dream a reality.
“I think such a big part of our team and team motto is really being so present in this moment every day heading into the Games,” Humana-Paredes said. “When you go to the Games, you get to go little lighter, a little more peaceful, a little more free. When playing at centre court in Paris, all the work has already been done we’re just there to kind of put it together. I don’t think they’ll be this feeling of ‘oh no’ (because of pressure). We’re just loving the moment right now.”