When Team Canada beach volleyball duo Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson hit the sand at the base of the Eiffel Tower this week, it will be the culmination of a big dream and hard work by a partnership that was only formed just over a year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
While Paris will be their first Games as a team, both athletes have previous Olympic experience.
Wilkerson made it to the quarterfinals of Tokyo 2020 with former partner Heather Bansley. Humana-Paredes and her then-partner, Sarah Pavan, also made it to those quarterfinals. Each team matched Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in women’s beach volleyball.
But together, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have their sights set even higher.
Collegiate teammates while at York University, teaming up felt like a natural fit for Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson after their previous partnerships dissolved.
Wilkerson calls their first season together “a beautiful step in the right direction,” but also “just a glimpse of what we can do.”
Fittingly, the duo earned their first big win together at home at the July 2023 Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 stop in Montreal. In 2023, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were consistently within the top 5 placings on the Elite 16 circuit, and also finished fifth at the FIVB World Championships in Tlaxcala, Mexico. They snagged a silver medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games, where they also served as Team Canada’s flag bearers for the Opening Ceremony.
“I think in [2023], we met our minimum standards,” says Humana-Paredes. “I think we created a really great foundation together.”
Building a new partnership is always a learning curve, even when building upon a pre-existing relationship. This learning process has to take place not only on the court, but also off.
“[Building the relationship] has to be approached in a very dynamic way because there’s so many aspects to our partnership and to the sport,” Wilkerson says. “You have a physical connection because you are on the sand together, you’re running plays together, you have to understand strategically what’s going on. And then there’s also the mental and emotional sides where you need to have good communication and you have to respect each other. We are each other’s number one fan”
“I think on the court specifically we’ve been learning how to best utilize each others’ strengths. When I’m not feeling great, what can I ask for or pull from Brandie to help me, and vice versa,” adds Humana-Paredes.
That learning curve seemed to be going pretty well for the duo. In 2024, they snagged two silver medals in Doha and Ostrava on the Elite 16 circuit, as well as another pair of top-five finishes. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson enter the Olympic tournament ranked third overall in the FIVB women’s beach volleyball world rankings.
Headed into the Games, the team is focused on staying in the moment.
“[A motivational mantra] that I’ve been sticking to lately is ‘this too shall pass,’” says Humana-Paredes. “In the good moments, embrace them and relish and take your time with them because they will move by really fast. And even the really challenging, tough situations, those will also move by. Everything will move on. So how you want to approach a situation and how you choose to embrace it is up to you.”
During group play at the Games, the duo will play in Pool D with Latvia, Switzerland and Paraguay. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will hit the sand for their first game at Paris 2024 on Monday, July 29 at 3:00 p.m. EST at the Eiffel Tower centre court. An iconic venue for a big dream.
