The Canadian women’s beach volleyball team will play for gold at the Paris Olympics after defeating Switzerland 14-21, 22-20, 15-12 in semifinal play at Eiffel Tower Stadium on Thursday.
After dropping the opener, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson saved a match ball against Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner in the second set before forcing a tie-break decider.
The Canadians sealed the win on their second match point when Switzerland sent the ball long.
“We had our goals pretty high, and I don’t think they are unreachable,” Humana-Paredes said. “We set our standards [in] early days, and we’re meeting them.
“But I don’t think we’ve played our best volleyball yet. I think it’s somewhere inside, and hopefully tomorrow we can bring it out.”
PLAYING FOR GOLD 🥇<br><br>Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson defeat the Swiss duo and will play for a gold medal in beach volleyball 👏<br><br>Watch <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris2024?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Paris2024</a> on CBC Gem | <a href=”https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CBCOlympics</a> <a href=”https://t.co/zWQHhjBQCS”>pic.twitter.com/zWQHhjBQCS</a>
—@TeamCanada
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, both from Toronto, will play the winner of the late semifinal between Australia and top-ranked Brazil for gold on Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are the first Canadian women’s beach volleyball team to reach the Olympic podium. Canada’s best previous result was a fifth-place finish at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“I was just soaking that moment in,” Wilkerson said about the duo’s celebration after clinching victory.
“You’ve seen so many different versions of that moment in your head, you do so much visualisation and manifestation of these things, that when it’s actually happening, I was just stunned. I was probably waiting for Mel [Humana-Paredes] to come back as she was running around.”
‘Out-of-body experience’
“I’m a runner [when I celebrate],” Humana-Paredes said. “It was an out-of-body experience. I think my body just had this huge release, and I needed to get that energy out.”
Currently ranked seventh in the world, the Canadians settled for a 1-2 pool record but topped podium favourites Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth of the United States in the round of 16 and Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno in the quarterfinals.
“We were really down last week, and there were some tough conversations to have, but it brought us to this moment,” Humana-Paredes said. “There’s still stuff left in the tank, and there’s more we can give.”
Canada reached the men’s podium at the 1996 Games when Mark Heese and John Child took bronze in Atlanta.
Men’s tournament
Germany beat defending Olympic champion Norway in the men’s semifinals.
Tokyo gold medallists Anders Mol and Christian Sorum rallied after losing the first set but fell 15-13 in the third, with the German team prevailing on a net fault challenge on match point.
The team of Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler will face the winner of the night match between top-ranked Sweden and 2021 bronze medallists Qatar.