Pro beach volleyball: Wilkerson, Humana-Paredes seek Montreal three-peat

Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes (right) and Brandie Wilkerson celebrate a point during the beach volleyball final against Brazil's Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa at the Summer Olympics, Friday, August 9, 2024 in Paris. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Home court has been good to Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson.

The Canadian beach volleyball duo seeks a Montreal three-peat in an FIVB Beach Pro Tournament starting Wednesday at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson won in Montreal early in their partnership in 2023, and again in 2025.

The latter tournament felt to them like a belated celebration of their Olympic silver medal in Paris in 2024, when the beach pro tour didn’t have a stop in Montreal.

“It was like the Olympics had happened the week before,” Humana-Paredes recalled. “It felt like the energy, the homecoming, the welcoming of the fans was insane every game.

“I still get goosebumps from it.”

Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, both from Toronto, were the first Canadian women to claim an Olympic beach volleyball medal.

They duelled with Brazilians Ana Patrícia Silva Ramos and Eduarda “Duda” Santos in a three-set final at Eiffel Tower Stadium.

Humana-Paredes is considered one of the best diggers in the game. The left-handed Wilkerson, whose wing span of almost two metres provides impenetrable blocks, is a force at the net.

Currently ranked ninth in the world, the Canadians chase a second tournament win this season after prevailing in Ostrava, Czechia, in May.

With no Olympic Games or world championship in 2026, Humana-Paredes says Montreal was circled in red on their competition calendar.

“Montreal is our highlight event,” she said. “We have a lot of hunger and motivation now to kind of come back to where we started the season.

“It’s extremely motivating to play on home soil. We always want to do well for ourselves, our team, our country, our federation. Back-to-back golds, we obviously want a third. So this is going to be a big one for us.”

Sunday’s men’s and women’s finals cap the season’s eight-stop elite Beach Pro Tour.

The tournament of 24 teams per gender in each main draw offers US$400,000 in prize money in Montreal.

Marie-Alex Bélanger of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, Que., and Lea Monkhouse of Mississauga, Ont., join Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson in the women’s main draw.

Samuel Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Jonathan Pickett of Wiarton, Ont., are in the men’s main draw.

The three Canadian teams open pool play Thursday after Wednesday’s qualifying, in which the remaining 12 berths in each draw will be filled.

Humana-Paredes’ hip injury in June at an AVP event in Miami was a hiccup for the team this season.

They went 1-4 in Gstaad, Switzerland, and didn’t play the next event in Rio de Janeiro. They reached the quarterfinals earlier this month in Hamburg, Germany.

“We started the season very strong, a testament to a strong off-season and a strong pre-season,” Humana-Paredes said. “The hip injury just kind of was a little bit of a setback. It was really just kind of my body communicating to me ‘maybe we just take a little bit of a rest right now and try and prepare for the latter half of the season’, which is now.

“It’s come back so much better and so much faster than I thought it would. I’m feeling really really good. It couldn’t be better timing.”

Humana-Paredes, 33, and Wilkerson, 34, reunited this year with coaches Marcio Sicoli and Guilherme (Fiapo) Tenius, who helped them to the Olympic podium in 2024.

They’ve also returned to Los Angeles as their training base. Sicoli coaches at Pepperdine University.

The Canadians relocated to Brazil in 2025 to train under coach Ricardo de Freitas. They were eliminated in the 2025 world championship quarterfinals.

“This year, it was a coming back together again and a relearning of our new-old team,” Humana-Paredes said.

“We got back with our old coaching staff from the Paris run and so it feels like a reunion, but also it feels like we’re learning new things again and putting new things in place.”

Paredes donates $20 for every dig she makes to “Sport One Carbon Zero”, which funds climate solutions.

“People can donate along with me, either match my pledge or just donate whatever they can,” she said. “I’m hoping that we’re going to crack $10,000.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press