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.
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.