HUMANA-PAREDES Melissa

Previous teammates
Taylor Pischke, Victoria Altomare (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Apr 2020)

General
IMPROVING COMMUNICATION
In 2019 she and partner Sarah Pavan employed a sports psychologist to help improve their communication. "We brought on a sports psychologist to help guide us in having really tough conversations that we otherwise wouldn't want to have. We've been winning and finding success together lately, but even when you're winning, you're constantly learning. Our wins haven't been easy, we've grinded our way through, so having someone to help guide tough conversations has helped bring us closer together to continue to improve. We've also had really tough losses that have led to serious conversations and then mental exercises for us to work on together. We've come out stronger." (thegistnews.ca, 01 Sep 2019)

PARTNERING WITH PAVAN
She teamed up with Sarah Pavan in 2016 after Pavan had competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with Heather Bansley. "She [Pavan] is a great defensive player. She's not just one of the best blockers in Canada but in the world. It was a no-brainer to play with her. When finding a partner, you're definitely looking for someone to complement your skills, commitment and work ethic. Everyone has skills at this level, but the relationship, and managing it, is important and one of the main dictators as to whether partnerships are successful or not. Sarah and I have taught each other a lot, it's how we're able to be successful." (cbc.ca, 02 Sep 2016; thegistnews.ca, 01 Sep 2019)

CHILEAN HERITAGE
He parents are from Chile, where her father coached volleyball and her mother was a ballet dancer. "I did not inherit anything from her in terms of her grace or being able to follow choreography. I did not get that gene. But she instilled a lot of other things in me like strength. She also lived through some really hard times in Chile. And she was still able to pursue her passion and still be able to dance and in a way like be able to control what she could control and still follow her dream. I'm so proud to be Canadian. I'm also so proud to be Chilean. I feel very grateful to have both experiences and to be able to grow up in a country like Canada that is so multicultural and so diverse and accepting of different cultures. I need to work on my Spanish but I do love both of these countries very much." (tokyo2020.org, 18 Jan 2021)

POSITIVE ROLE MODEL
She hopes to use her platform as an elite athlete to be a positive female role model and change perceptions associated with beach volleyball. "I'm very careful with what kind of messages I portray, and who I want to be for young athletes. If I can have the kind of impact that Sarah [Pavan] has had on me to one young girl, then I'm doing my job right. I just want to help grow the sport and inspire a young generation. In beach volleyball, it's easy for girls to feel left out and honestly a bit sexualised sometimes. It has a bad reputation for female athletes, so that's something I'm trying to stand up for, and show that beach volleyball is inclusive, and there is room for strong women." (thegistnews.ca, 01 Sep 2019)

OTHER STUDIES
In 2020 she began studying for a certificate in business at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada. (fivb.com, 10 Oct 2020)

In 2019 she and Sarah Pavan won Canada's first ever beach volleyball world title when they took gold at the 2019 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Apr 2020; cbc.ca, 13 Jul 2019)

In 2018 she and Sarah Pavan became the first ever Commonwealth Games women's beach volleyball champions, after the event was introduced at the 2018 Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Apr 2020; olympic.ca, 01 Jan 2019)