The Olympic beach volleyball tournament will be very special for all athletes involved. That is because they will be competing very near to Paris’s famous Eiffel Tower. Team Canada has three entries in the tournaments–two on the women’s side and one on the men’s side.
The Canadian women’s teams will be represented by Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Toronto, Ontario, as well as Heather Bansley of London, Ontario, and Sophie Bukovec of Toronto. It is interesting that Wilkerson and Bukovec teamed up together to win the silver medal at the 2022 World Women’s Beach Volleyball Championships in Rome. The only team to beat Bukovec and Wilkerson were Duda and Ana Patricia of Brazil.
Humana-Paredes has also won the gold medal at the World Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship. She teamed up with Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ontario in 2019 in Hamburg, Germany.
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are the fourth seeds behind Brazil, Australia and the United States. Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson are in Pool D, alongside Latvia, Switzerland and Paraguay. Bansley and Bukovic are in Pool B in a pool with Australia, China, and the United States. Meanwhile on the men’s side, the Canadian team is represented by Samuel Schachter of North York, Ontario and Daniel Dearing of Toronto, Ontario. Canada is in Pool E alongside Czech Republic, Brazil and Austria.