Melissa Humana-Paredes (born October 10, 1992) is a Canadian beach volleyball player, who is partnered with

Brandie Wilkerson Brandie Wilkerson (born July 1, 1992) is a Canadian beach volleyball player who plays as a right-side blocker. With teammate Heather Bansley, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 1 in November 2018. She is the 2018 FIVB Best Block ...

. Humana-Paredes won the women's gold medal with

Sarah Pavan Sarah Lindsey Pavan (born August 16, 1986) is a Canadian beach volleyball and former indoor volleyball player. She was part of the Canada women's national volleyball team at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan. With Mel ...

at the

2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships The 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Hamburg, Germany from 28 June to 7 July 2019.

Early life

Born in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Humana-Paredes is the younger daughter of two

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

an expatriates, ballet dancer Myriam Paredes and volleyball player Hernán Humaña, who was part of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

and later coached Canadians John Child and

Mark Heese Mark Heese (born August 15, 1969) is a Canadian male beach volleyball player. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Heese began playing beach volleyball at the age of 19 at the Balmy Beach Club in Toronto, and is a graduate of McMaster University where he ...

to the bronze medal at the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. Humana-Paredes started playing beach volleyball at the age of 12 and four years later, was already representing Canada internationally. She also played competitive indoor volleyball for Storm Volleyball. She then attended

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

, majoring in

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

while playing CIS volleyball for the

York Lions The York Lions is the official name for the athletic varsity teams that represent York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports and, where applicable ...

for four seasons from 2010 to 2014.

Volleyball career

In 2011, she won a silver medal at the

FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships The FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship is a double-gender international beach volleyball tournament for athletes under the age of 21. The competition first took place in Le Lavandou, France in 2001. Results summary Men's tournament W ...

with Victoria Altomare. Years later, as Hernan talked with volleyball coach Garth Pischke, he learned his daughter Taylor wanted to join the beach volleyball scene and suggested that the two daughters be joined as a team. Both were trained by John Child. The new pair led Humana-Paredes to win the bronze medal at the World Under-23 Championships and be named the top female rookie in 2015 by the International Federation of Volleyball. Humana-Paredes competed at several Grand Slam and World Cup events, reaching the round of 16 at the

2015 Beach Volleyball World Championships The 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships were staged from 26 June to 5 July 2015 in The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are organized every two years and Netherlands ...

Volleyball lineage flows through Canada’s budding beach duo
/ref> and the semi-finals at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: * 15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak a ...

. From August 23–28, 2016, she competed with Pischke at the

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, Grand Slam. Playing in Pool-A, they lost to Maria Antonelli and Lili of Brazil (21–11, 23–21), and

April Ross April Elizabeth Ross (born June 20, 1982) is an American beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic medalist. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with Jennifer Kessy, a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Kerri Wal ...

and

Kerri Walsh Jennings Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. She is the beach volleyball leader in career victories as of 2016 ha ...

of the United States (21–16, 21–17) in straight sets. Playing against Carol and Ana Patrícia of Brazil, they won in straight sets (21–19, 26–24), placing them in 3rd in Pool-A. Humana-Paredes and Pavan won the gold medal at the

2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships The 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Hamburg, Germany from 28 June to 7 July 2019.

, defeating the American team of

and

Alix Klineman Alexandra Rose "Alix" Klineman (born December 30, 1989) is an American beach volleyball, 2020 Summer Olympics gold medalist, and former indoor volleyball player. In high school she was the 2006 Gatorade National Player of the Year. She was a ...

in straight-sets 2-0 (23-21, 23-21); for Canada's first medal ever at the event. This victory automatically qualified the Canadian pair for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. They achieved further success on the FIVB tour that summer with additional tournament wins at the Edmonton Open in late July, and at the Vienna Major in early August. These FIVB tour wins were followed by success on the AVP tour, with additional championship wins over Ross and Klineman at both the

Manhattan Beach Open The Manhattan Beach Open is a beach volleyball tournament held annually during the summer in Manhattan Beach, California. Held on the south side of the Manhattan Beach Pier, the Open is the only professional volleyball tournament in which amate ...

in mid-August and the Hawaii Open in late September. Humana-Paredes and Pavan were named to the Canadian Olympic team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, which the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

caused to be delayed until 2021. The two went undefeated during pool play, winning every set. Entering the knockout rounds as the top seed, they defeated Spaniards

Liliana Liliana is derived from the Latin word 'lilium' or 'lilion', both mean 'lily' in English. Due to this, the name means "pure" and "innocent". The name is generally found in North America, though it is more common in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ...

/ Baquerizo in the Round of 16. In the quarter final, a rematch of the Commonwealth Games final with Australians

Clancy Clancy is an Irish name coming from the Gaelic ''Mac Fhlannchaidh/Mac Fhlannchadha'', meaning "Son of the red/ruddy warrior" (Mac being for sons, ''Ní Fhlannchaidh/Ní Fhlannchadha'' would be for daughters), or as a hypocorism for Clarence. ...

/ Artacho del Solar, they lost two sets to one and were eliminated from the tournament.

Accolades

* Champion, 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships - Hamburg (representing Canada, with Sarah Pavan) * Champion, 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Winner (representing Canada, with Sarah Pavan) * FIVB Team of the Year 2019 (with Sarah Pavan) * FIVB Best Defensive Player, 2019 * FIVB Best Setter, 2018 & 2019 * AVP Best Defensive Player, 2019 * AVP Newcomer of the Year, 2019 * FIVB Most Improved Player, 2017 * FIVB Top Rookie, 2014

University

*2012-13

OUA Oua is an islet on the north-east of Nukufetau atoll, Tuvalu, next to Lafanga Lafanga or Lafaga is an islet of Nukufetau, Tuvalu. The traditional history of Nukufetau recalls that in order to protect the atoll from raiders from Tonga, Fialua, an A ...

First-Team All-star *2011-12

First-Team All-star *2011-12 CIS Second Team All-Canadian *2012

Female Athlete of the Year

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Humana-Paredes, Melissa 1992 births Living people Canadian women's beach volleyball players Pan American Games competitors for Canada Beach volleyball players at the 2015 Pan American Games York University alumni York Lions volleyball players Volleyball players from Toronto Canadian people of Chilean descent Beach volleyball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Beach volleyball defenders FIVB World Tour award winners Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games