World champions
Duo coming to city: Jones
Could the timing of an event possibly be any better?
First you have the sporting experiment of building a beach volleyball venue at the now abandoned Northlands Park horse racetrack and attracting the only FIVB World Tour event in either Canada or the USA this year to open K-days next week.
OK, that should attract the curious.
But then, last week, Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-paredes followed winning silver at the Itapema Open in Brazil by capturing the FIVB Women’s World Beach Volleyball Championship in Hamburg, Germany. It was a first for Canada.
It also automatically qualified the pair for the Tokyo Olympics.
Then this week, while competing in Switzerland, the world rankings came out and the two found themselves now ranked No. 1 in the world. And CBC revealed it would replay their championship game Saturday leading into the Edmonton event.
Timing is everything. An event that was mostly a local curiosity became something of a national coronation.
“They’re all pretty big thrills,” Pavan said in an interview from Gstaad, where they have now opened with a pair of wins in a US$600,000 prize money event.
“Being world champions and the first Canadians to achieve that has been a big dream for us. It really is a testament to the years of hard work we have put in separately and together,” she said.
Humana-paredes said the rest is the icing on their cake.
“The No. 1 world ranking and qualifying for Tokyo are fun.
The ranking is just a number for us and we always expected to qualify for Tokyo. But having the qualification become official does now give us some flexibility in our scheduling as far as which tournaments we choose to attend. We are still aiming for a top seed for the Olympics, so we still have to perform.”
As for the phenomenal timing with the US$150,000 prize money at the experimental Northlands Park event in Edmonton, they’re doubly delighted.
“We arrive in Edmonton Monday evening and we are beyond excited to share this with our Canadian volleyball community. We think the timing of our historic world championship win is absolutely perfect, coinciding with our homecoming to Canada,” said Pavan.
“We aren’t sure the full impact of gold has really hit us yet, but we think it will finally sink in for us when we are playing in front of our home crowd,” said Humana-paredes.
Having a home event is highly unusual.
“We rarely get to compete in Canada,” said Pavan, pointing out her most recent occasions to play in a FIVB event in Canada was in Quebec in 2011 and the Pan-am Games in Toronto in 2015.
“The last time Sarah competed in Canada was in 2011 indoor with the national team,” said Humana-paredes.
Neither player competed in the World Tour finals in Toronto in 2016 after the Rio Olympics.
The team received US$60,000 to split with their world win in Hamburg and $16,000 from the prestigious Brazil event. They have earned $393,000 as a team or $196,500 each since becoming a team in 2017.
In many ways, these two are the Odd Couple of beach volleyball.
Humana-paredes, 26, is from Toronto and five-foot-nine.
Pavan, 32, is from Kitchener, but has converted to beach to such an extent that she resides in Hermosa Beach, Calif. She’s six-foot-five.
“We got to know a lot about each other when we lived and trained together during the Rio Olympics. We got to see each other on and off the court and we developed a mutual respect going through that experience together. When Heather Bansley and Pavan decided to stop playing together we both figured it would be a good fit for us to try partnering up. When we did, we could feel the chemistry on the court immediately,” said Humana-paredes.
While they obviously have different roles on the sand, they supplied interesting answers when I asked what they valued most in what their partners bring to the game and the elements involved that people might not expect.
“I value the joy that Melissa brings to the game. I am an intense, serious competitor, but Melissa has shown me that it is possible to express love and joy while still being fierce,” said Pavan.
“When things get tough on the court, we are able to stay in the moment with each other because we both love being on the court together.”
For her partner, it’s bringing the missing links to the combination.
“Sarah brought in a whole new perspective to the game coming from such a high-level indoor game. Her professionalism helped bring me to the big stage. She analyzes the game and opponents in a way I was never exposed to. It’s been so much fun and so eye-opening having never experienced playing this game in such a creative and unique way,” said Humana-paredes.
They’re definitely not two peas from the same pod.
“Our personalities are very different, but they compliment each other,” said Pavan.
“I’m a very introverted person that enjoys a lot of quite time away from people while Melissa is more outgoing and fun-loving. It’s a nice balance. I think an important thing to mention is that we allow each other to be ourselves without resentment and without trying to change each other.”
With Humana-paredes coming from a beach volleyball background and her father coaching at an Olympic level, and Pavan coming from an indoor volleyball family background, the different paths have meshed into something special.
“Melissa has been playing beach volleyball since she was very young and the time she has spent in the game has allowed her to develop an incredible beach volleyball IQ and instinct on the court. She has spent years in this culture and this environment and she feels very at home in the sand,” said Pavan.
“Sarah spent many years playing volleyball at the highest levels, so she has a deep understanding of excellence and what it takes to win. We came from different places, but it’s really cool to think of how our paths intertwined to make us the team we are today,” said Humana-paredes.
World champions.