PARIS—The sand shifted beneath their bare feet. And then shifted again. And then shifted .
with pulsating lights, in front of a raucous audience a-rockin’ and a-rollin’, slipped from Canada’s hands. It had been . Seized instead by , but its first since 1996 for the women’s team It was a tense and thrilling match that required three sets to determine the victor.
Punctuated with spectacular blocks, smashing spikes and a dramatic confrontation in the deciding set when Brandie Wilkerson squared off against Ana Patricia Ramos at the net, finger-pointing and shouting at each other. The referee tried to get the women to back away and settle down. They took no mind of him.
It was the venue DJ, rather, who managed to cool tempers by suddenly playing John Lennon’s “Imagine’’ over the speakers — which got everybody laughing, including Wilkerson and Ramos. The very loud pro-Brazil crowd sang along. Wilkerson insisted afterward it was all simply a misunderstanding.
“Genuinely what happened was, just after a big play, I saw my family in the back and I was cheering at that. She thought I was cheering at her, but I was looking past her.’’ Ramos apparently thought it was a jibe over Brazil’s lost point.
“She kind of came back at me,’’ Wilkerson continued. “I was like, what are you doing? Then she said: ‘You started with me.’ And I was like, why are we doing this? Aren’t we playing a respectful game? This has nothing to do with you.
’’ Lennon, of all things, restored peace to the scene. “After that we kind of calmed down. And at the end of the game, we talked to each other again and it was all love and respect.
’’ Wilkerson had been shown a yellow card, however. If anything, the encounter gave a jolt of renewed gumption. “We used that energy — good, bad, negative, you can label it but it’s all energy — and tried to run from there,’’ said Wilkerson.
Not enough of a spasm, though, to recover from a 14-9 deficit as the Canadians went down 15-10 in the tiebreaker. Then it was samba-samba-samba for the Brazilians and their ecstatic fans. But what a magnificent night in the most breathtaking venue of the Games.
“What a beautiful opportunity we had to play the finals under the Eiffel Tower against the best in the world,’’ said Wilkerson. “That in and of itself is a win.’’ Indeed, Brazil is ranked No.
1 in the world, Canada seeded No. 4. Yet this was the farthest Canada has ever gone in Olympic beach volleyball, male or female: the only Olympic medal attained was a bronze by at Atlanta in 1996, coached by Humana-Paredes’s father.
That Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes made the final at all was not only unprecedented but quite amazing, after going 1-2 in the preliminary round and only arriving at the quarterfinals as a lucky-loser tandem. “It was an emotional roller-coaster and it really tested our team,’’ admitted Humana-Paredes. “It forced us to have really deep, hard conversations early on.
For me personally, it showed me that I don’t have to be playing my best (volleyball) to make it to an Olympic final. I can do the best with what I have that day and I can rely on my team and teammate to help me get there.’’ Humana-Paredes is widely acknowledged as the best defensive player in the game, but it was defensive lapses that cost the Canadians the first set, where they’d charged out to leads of 8-2 and 13-7.
The Brazilians, Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa (known simply as Duda), then racked up five points in a row as the women went at it hammer and tong, the lead swinging back and forth before the Brazilians finally took the set 26-24. “Some missed opportunities on side-outs,’’ said Humana-Paredes. “There were a string of points that let them back in the game.
They put some service pressure on and I didn’t respond, but we never backed down.’’ It was the Canadians, though, who dominated start to finish in the second set, 21-12. But the momentum didn’t carry over into the tiebreak.
“I am absolutely thrilled to make history in Canada for beach volleyball,’’ said Wilkerson when it was all over. “Coming back with a medal is a reflection of all the hard work, no matter if we wanted more.’’ No matter about the tiff, either.
“It’s insanity. It’s the finals at the Olympics and it’s the two best teams in the world fighting for the same little piece of gold.’’ Added Humana-Paredes: “We’re a winter sport country, but we are really freakin’ good at beach volleyball as well.
’’.
