Olympic silver medal winners Humana-Paredes, Wilkerson back to Montreal Beach Volleyball Stop
Brandie Wilkerson, left, and Melissa Humana-Paredes are on stage with their silver medals after the beach volleyball final at the Olympic Summer Games, Saturday 10 August 2024 in Paris.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes know that they are warm this week in Montreal, especially as Olympic medal winners.
The Beach Volleyball stars of Last Silver While winning silver on home floor can already feel the excitement for the first time since winning silver during Parisian games last summer, whether it is on social media or while walking on the street.
“We have felt a huge amount of support,” Wilkerson said Wednesday. “Random people stop us, tell us about their experience watching or their love for the game, and just send a lot of love.
“We anticipate a really great Canadian crowd.”
Two years ago, Wilkerson and Humana Paredes enlightened the Elite16 stop of Montreal on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, getting the first gold medal of their months old partnership and forming the stage for a historic season 2024.
Now they are back at Parc Jean-Drapeau, who start on Thursday with polar game, just over one full year away from their memorable Underdog-Run in Paris.
Under the bright lights in Eiffel Tower Stadium, the Toronto duo became the first Canadian women to reach the Olympic stage in Strand Volleyball.
After a disappointing 1-2 start, they won their happy loss competition and went through the knockout rounds in a beautiful turnaround to reach the final and fell in three sets to the Brazilian Ana Patricia Ramos and Eduarda Santos (Duda) Lisboa Ow in Montreal.
The only other Canada medal in the sport was a bronze for men during the 1996 matches in Atlanta.
Melissa Humana paredes and Brandie Wilkerson attracted the attention of Canadian sport fans with their run to an Olympic silver medal last summer.ESA Alexander/Reuters
Since their historic finish in Paris, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have felt the expectations of them, but nothing can be compared to the standards they have set for themselves.
“There is always a target on your back when you get a label like Olympic medal winner, and it changes how people can perceive you,” said Humana paredes. “What does not change is how we continue to appear and how we continue to improve.
“We know what we are capable of and we know what we want to achieve … We are never constantly done to get better, regardless of what results we achieve.”
The former volleyball teammates of York University feel far from done despite their climb to the Olympic stage.
They have set their sights on gold during the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. That is despite the fact that they will both be in the mid-1930s, his-Humana paredes is 32, Wilkerson is 33 and considered stopping it years ago.
“I wasn’t sure if I would even go to Paris after Tokyo,” said Humana-Paredes. “However, I think that after Paris, no matter how difficult it was, there was an immediate confirmation for me that I would definitely still want to do an Olympic run to LA, and without a doubt with Brandie.
“I had something like that:” I hope she is on the same page! “”
Wilkerson was convinced that they had only started the partnership on the surface for two years.
“If this is what we could achieve in two, give us another four,” she said. “I am very enthusiastic about what will come next.”
Their skills fit well on the sand. The athletic, five-foot-11 Wilkerson is a prominent Blocker in Beach Volleyball, while the five-foot-nine Humana-Paragical-a former FIVB defender of the year-the’s defense includes.
This season they participated in four events and finished three times in the top five under the new head coach Ricardo de Freitas, who replaced Marcio Sicoli.
In the run -up to Paris, the relatively new partners concentrated on laying, setting and serving a base with consistent pass, without much time to evolve further.
With three years until the next Olympic Games, Humana-Paredes believes that the areas they can grow are endless. They learn new offensive sets, working on situational game calls and exploring different ways to use their service as a weapon.
“We now have time to experiment … and evolve and [become] More consistent, “said Humana-Paredes.” We both went to two Olympic Games, so to have that feeling on this point in our career, such as: “Oh, we just tap the surface and we can really build on our foundations,” feels really exciting. ‘
A stage finish this season is still escaping them, but maybe they have more magic in the store in Montreal.
“We had a great time the first time. We were so impressed by the energy of the fans,” said Wilkerson. “To come back now, post-Olympics and feel more ready, I think that more volleyball fans than before, I am really looking forward to seeing how things come together.
