PARIS – Just like a handful of sand, the Olympic gold medal slipped through Canada’s grasp.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson settled for silver after a wild championship match that ended in a 2-1 defeat (26-24, 12-21, 15-10) to the Brazilian duo of Ana Patricia and Duda Friday in the women’s beach volleyball final at Eiffel Tower Stadium.
The Canadian team couldn’t build on the momentum of a second-set blowout win in the tie-breaker. They also fumbled away a massive 8-2 lead in the first set, where they also squandered two set points.
The Brazilians completed their unbeaten run with a seventh straight victory. They only dropped two sets along the way.
This was a historic encounter. All seven previous Olympic women’s finals were decided in the minimum two sets.
The Canadians took the hard road to their first women’s medal on the beach and just second in the 28-year history of the sport at the Summer Games.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson lost two of their first three matches. They made it through the lucky loser round, beat an American favourite and staved off match point in the semifinal against the Swiss bronze-medal duo of Huberli-Brunner, who had not lost a set in their first five games.
But they couldn’t win a fifth straight game to finish it off. Still, it was a sensational run.
The Canadians fell in the quarterfinals with different partners three years ago at Tokyo. A year later, the old York University indoor teammates finally linked up and made their debut together in February 2023.
Their shaky-looking start here transformed into Canada’s greatest triumph on on this most beautiful stage of the Olympic Summer Games.
Wilkerson is the best blocker in the game and she put it on display all tournament.
Most opponents target the taller Ana Patricia, but Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson went in a different direction. They put the target on Duda to pass and side-out, throwing the Brazilians a curve early.
Canada scored six straight points for the edge, but shockingly, couldn’t maintain it. The Brazilians nibbled away, won a smart block-touch challenge and went ahead 18-17 on an ace.
Canada held off set point three times, but then didn’t convert after Ana Patricia mis-hit a spike into the net. The Brazilians finally strung a couple of points together to take a compelling first set.
The Brazilian women had not won the gold since Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva at the original tournament at Atlanta in 1996. They had four silver medals in the first seven Olympic finals, so this is their time again.
The Atlanta Games was the same event where Canada won its first beach medal – a bronze on the men’s side from John Child and Mark Heese. Humana-Paredes’ father, Hernan, was their coach.
Melissa was three-years-old at the time. But she heard her dad’s stories and realized these kinds of games come down to grit, hard work and believing in yourself and your partner.
They put that on display for all to see this week. It just wasn’t enough for the top of the podium.