From the Olympic beach volleyball stadium last summer on Champ de Mars, with the Eiffel Tower providing a stunning backdrop, to a grey Victoria weekend with winter beckoning.
But Melissa Humana-Paredes, who won silver for sa国际传媒 with Brandie Wilkerson in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, is adapting to her new home quite well.
On Saturday, she helped out at a kids’ volleyball clinic at St. Michaels University School gymnasium and today she will be celebrated by the Island volleyball community with a fundraiser to aid in her training expenses.
Humana-Paredes has been on the Island for seven months — spiking and setting around the Willows Beach grass area in Oak Bay is a favourite haunt in better weather.
It would be hard-pressed to label the Toronto native’s silver medal from Paris as Island-produced, like those in women’s eights rowing, women’s sevens rugby and the men’s hammer throw.
But the Island volleyball community has produced several Olympians — including Fred Winters, Martin Reader, Jamie Broder, Tom Graham, Greg Russell and Ann Ireland — and is passionate and close-knit, with the Camosun College Chargers and Vancouver Island University Mariners teams having won several national championships between them.
The community wanted to do something to assist Humana-Paredes with her training costs and is hosting today’s fundraiser from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Uptown Canadian Brewhouse.
It begins outside with the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club Lion Dance Club performing in her honour. That will be followed by a ticketed meet-and-greet in which fans can see her Olympic silver medal and get their pictures taken with Humana-Paredes.
The cost is $35 and includes a burger, chicken or vegetarian and fries meal, with tip included. Of each ticket sold, $10 will go to Humana-Paredes for training expenses. There will also be a silent auction with proceeds going to her.
The Canadian Brewhouse will be putting up an autographed picture of her to go along with the others hanging of Island and Canadian sporting luminaries. The event is being organized by Topspin Volleyball Association, Victoria Volleyball Association and Victoria Women’s Volleyball League, which are also assisting Humana-Paredes in other ways.
“Melissa moved here and we thought it would be awesome to welcome her and to celebrate her silver medal and meet her,” said Fuji Eng, organizer of the event, and co-ordinator of the Topspin Volleyball Association.
“From youth clubs to high schools and college, we have such a vibrant volleyball culture here,” added Eng, who coaches at St. Andrew’s Secondary School.
“I have a mix of youth and adult players coming out [today] but it’s open to anyone who wants to celebrate Melissa’s achievements. The lion dance was to make it special for her intro.”
Humana-Paredes, 32, is the daughter of refugee parents who escaped Pinochet’s Chile. She starred in indoor volleyball at York University and on the beach won gold medals, with Sarah Pavan, at the 2018 Gold Coast and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, world championship gold in 2019 at Hamburg and silver at the 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games in an emotive return to her ancestral homeland. Humana-Paredes and Pavan also made the quarter-finals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Humana-Paredes’ Olympic silver medal with Wilkerson at Paris 2024 was won breathlessly on the brink all the way through, having to survive a lucky-loser playoff against the Czechs after a rocky start in pool play at 1-2.
They hit their spiking and digging groove with respective Sweet Sixteen, quarter-final and semifinal upset wins over the favoured U.S., Spanish and Swiss teams, before taking Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Lisboa of Brazil to the full three sets in a gripping gold-medal final.
“It was an emotional roller-coaster and really tested our team early on [during the Olympics], but you can still find a way,” Humana-Paredes said at the time.
“We showed a lot of people what’s possible with pure heart and grit and what the intangibles of sports mean.
“There’s a lot to be said for that. It doesn’t matter what your numbers are and your data is, if you are willing to fight to the end.”
It was only the second Olympic medal for sa国际传媒 in volleyball, following the men’s beach bronze won by John Child and Mark Heese at Atlanta in 1996. Humana-Paredes was only three at the time, but that 1996 medal became a guiding light for her and part of family lore as Child and Heese were coached by Humana-Paredes’ father, Hernan Humana.
