Canada wins historic beach volleyball silver

Canada's Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes settled for the silver in beach volleyball after being defeated by Brazil in the decisive third set.

Their effort is Canada's best-ever beach volleyball result, and its first medal in the women's competition. It also ties the Canadian national record for most total medals won at a non-boycotted Summer Olympics with 24.

Brazil's Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa took a back-and-forth first set 26-24. The Canadians rallied back to take the second set 21-12 but lost the tiebreaker set 15-10. It was the first time in Olympic history that a beach volleyball gold-medal game was taken to a third set.

This is Canada's second-ever beach volleyball medal. The first was a bronze won by John Child and Mark Heese at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics - the year the sport was introduced. Humana-Paredes is the daughter of Hernan Humana, who coached Child and Heese.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were members of Canada's beach volleyball team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but they had different partners. Both lost their respective quarterfinals and decided to join forces in October 2022.

The duo finished Paris' round robin 1-2 and were forced to play a "lucky loser" match against Czechia. It's the first time in the sport's Olympic history that the winners of the lucky loser match have made the final.

Switzerland's Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner won bronze after defeating Australia's Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in straight sets.