September 7, 2024: The Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team won the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, defeating Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to wrap up its tournament in Paris.

The medal is Canada’s first-ever Paralympic podium finish in sitting volleyball. The women’s team has improved in each Paralympic appearance they’ve attended, finishing seventh in 2016 and fourth in 2020.

Veteran Heidi Peters said after the win: “I know we were really prepared for every scenario today. (We had a) really strong game plan, really going to go out there and serve our best serves and focus on our receiving game and just hitting them all hard.

"We have some of the best starters in the world. I had no doubt they were going to distribute the ball effectively. And I think our serve game is definitely what won that…. Just that belief that our style of play is what will get us a medal today. If it was going to be harder, if it was going to be a grind to two points in the fifth set, we were ready for it. I'm just proud of us.”

Peters led the way for the Canadians with 18 points, split evenly between attacks and points off service. Team captain Danielle Ellis had 13 points, followed by Jennifer Oakes with 12. Sarah Melenka had nine blocks and Oakes had eight.

Ahead of the gold medal match, Ellis leads the tournament in points with 73, Peters is in fourth with 60, Melenka in sixth with 53, and Oakes sits in eighth with 51. Peters has been the most effective server in the tournament so far, averaging 1.5 points per set off service. Jolan Wong holds the top spot for liberos, with 1.56 in-play balls per set and just seven errors.

"It was really fast and exciting," Ellis said. “I think it was really comfortable, which seems like a crazy thing to say. We lost to them just a week ago. But today we came in with so much information. We knew what was happening. We were all in it together, eye contact. We were playing hard. We were playing aggressively. It was fun."

As Ellis mentioned, Canada earned some redemption in the win over Brazil after suffering a loss in the preliminary round. But that wasn’t the only redemption after losing the bronze medal game to them at the 2020 Paralympics. Canada’s win prevented Brazil from winning a third-straight bronze medal.

"We finally did it," head coach Nicole Ban reflected. “We showed up in our third Paralympic Games, our second bronze medal match and we did it. We won. I couldn't be prouder of the athletes today, but really for the growth that we've had over the nine and a half years that I've been with the program and honestly, most of this core group has been here through it.

“We've felt the highs and we've felt the lows and I hope that bringing back a bronze medal to Canada can only increase the awareness for young kids with disabilities in our country. Hopefully, they're tuned in today or they watch a highlight or they see something on Instagram and they want to come out and be like the heroes that were out there on the court today. I couldn't be prouder of a group of athletes to advocate off-court and to compete like crazy on court.”

Team USA won the women's gold-medal match later today, beating China 3-1. The United States also won the gold over China at the last Games in Tokyo. 

Full results:  World ParaVolley
Team Canada: paralympic.ca

Media attaché in Paris: Courtney Killion

Photo: CPC/Dave Holland

Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676