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.
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.
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 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.
Canada reached the men’s podium at the 1996 Games when Mark Heese and John Child took bronze in Atlanta.