PARIS (AP) — Melissa Humana-Paredes’s cellphone background is a picture of herself as a 3-year-old holding a bronze medal from the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when her father coached Canada’s beach volleyball team.

Until this week, it was the only Olympic medal in beach volleyball her country had ever won.

Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson won nothing less than silver on Thursday at the Paris Gameswho recovered after losing the first set, defeated Switzerland and secured a place in the women’s beach volleyball final.

Spectators from the stands in Eiffel Tower Stadium was Humana-Paredes’ father, Hernán Humaña, who coached John Child and Mark Heese and took them to third place in the sport’s first Olympic appearance. His daughter, born in 1992, said she caught the beach volleyball bug when she saw him travel the world playing beach volleyball.

“It’s something I look back on often that has actually guided my career,” Humana-Paredes told The Associated Press. “It gives me hope and inspires me about what’s possible. And he always taught me that anything is possible. I don’t think I could be here without his experience and his belief.”

The Canadians will play for gold against the top-ranked Brazilian duo of Ana Patrícia and Duda, who defeated silver medalists Australia in Tokyo on Thursday night. Brazil, which has won the most beach volleyball medals in Olympic history, managed to avoid a second consecutive Olympic shutout.

“We have often heard that Brazil did not win a medal in Tokyo,” Duda said through an interpreter. “And three years later, here we are with this medal. So that is very important.”

Germany also won nothing less than silver in the men’s competition, defeating the defending champion Olympic champion Norway in the men’s semifinals; Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler will play on Saturday against the jumping Swedestwo 22-year-old Olympic debutants who form the best-ranked team in the world.

“If someone had told us a few years ago that we would be in the final, nobody would have believed it,” said Hellvig after defeating Tokyo bronze medalist Qatar in straight sets. “We have had an incredible journey in the last few years. We are super, super proud of that.”

The Canadians had to win a lucky loser match to advance to the knockout round of the tournament and then had a match point against the Swiss before winning the second set, the first set the Swiss team of Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner had lost in Paris.

“We are very proud of what we have accomplished in the last two weeks,” Humana-Paredes said after the 14-21, 22-20 and 15-12 victories. “We have experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows.”

“We have one more day, one more game, and we’re not losing sight of that,” she said. “But it’s a great feeling to win a medal for Canada. We know what color we want. But we have this together forever. And we hope Canada is proud of it.”

The Canadians trailed 20-19 in the second set, but then won three points in a row to force a tiebreak in the third set, which initially went to 15 points. They took a 14-11 lead and on the second match point the Swiss hit the ball far out of bounds.

Humana-Paredes chased the ball, watched it land behind the baseline, and continued running in a huge circle back toward the goal before returning to Wilkerson, who fell to her knees in apparent shock.

“This game alone, not to mention the last two weeks of this tournament, has been a rollercoaster,” Humana-Paredes said. “And so there’s a huge feeling of relief. I was just running around because I was so full of energy that I needed to let out.”

Germany defeated defending champions Anders Mol and Christian Sorum for the first time in their careers. Norway recovered after losing the first set and forced a tiebreak, but fell behind 14-12 in the third set.

On the second match point, Mol seemingly managed to make the block that would have made it 14-14, but Germany used one of his challenges to request a review of whether he had committed a net fault. The replay showed that the Norwegian’s legs touched the bottom of the net when he jumped, and the game was over.

Germany will face the top-seeded Swedish duo David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig.

“First of all, we celebrate that we won the semifinal. And then we focus on the final. And then we will see if it is gold or silver,” said Ehlers. “I think both would be great for our association, for our country. And we are so happy that we were able to make this possible.”

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AP Olympiad: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games