Former NBA player Chase Budinger and partner Miles Evans were the last team to reach the knockout round of the Paris Olympics beach volleyball tournament, beating Australia in straight sets in the final lucky loser match on Saturday night.
The two American first-time Olympians won 21-18, 21-17 to earn the right to face one of the Tokyo medalists in the round of 16 on Monday — either the gold-medal-winning Norwegians or the bronze medalists from Qatar.
Earlier on Saturday night, Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson played themselves into the final 16 five hours after losing their final match of the pool stage to fall into the lucky loser round.
The Canadians, who were fourth on the Olympic qualification points list, lost to Latvia in straight sets in the 5 p.m. match and then were back in Eiffel Tower Stadium at 10 p.m., when they beat Czechia 21-15, 21-12.
“It’s a new tournament now. Whatever happened is in the past and now we just move forward,” said Wilkerson, who also came out of the lucky loser bracket at the Tokyo Games and upset a third-seeded American team.
“When you’re having a hard go ... it really helps lean into the gratitude of what we’re doing here,” she said, “and to be able to show up and appreciate just what that moment is.”
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Czech Barbora Hermannova played in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and qualified for Tokyo but never made it to the sand because her partner tested positive for COVID-19. Their Olympics are over, the Czechs gave each other a prolonged hug and smiled.
“Even though we lost, we had good times here,” Hermannova said. “We are definitely heartbroken now. But why not laugh if you are in an amazing stadium in front of so many people who are loving volleyball.”
Her partner, Marie-Sara Stochlova, was at her first Olympics.
“We were also definitely crying,” she said. “But even losing, it was it was a blast."
Japan beat France in the other women's lucky loser matchup, eliminating the last of the host teams from the tournament.
In the afternoon, Chile advanced to the knockout round when Canada’s Dan Dearing withdrew from their lucky loser match after three points because of a back injury.
“That’s part of sport. Sometimes injuries happen. Obviously horrific timing,” said Dearing’s partner, Sam Schachter. “It’s a nightmare for Dan and me and we want to be able to share that moment with our families and the crowd and get that Olympic spirit. But, obviously, it didn’t happen today.”
Dearing sustained the injury during practice on Saturday morning. He and Schachter took the sand for the match that pits third-place teams from pool play against each other to fill out the final spots in the round of 16.
After three points, with Chile winning two, it became obvious to Dearing that he couldn’t continue.
“Obviously, we’re frustrated,” Schachter said. “We want to be able to compete. It’s super disappointing that we weren’t able to get Dan’s back to a place where he can compete. But we really tried our hardest.”
Chile advances to the round of 16 against one of the pool winners. Esteban Grimalt, who teams with his cousin, Marco Grimalt, said the teams are friends who trained together when they first arrived in Paris.
“It’s not the best way, of course. It’s a shame,” Esteban Grimalt said. “It was really unexpected and really sad, actually, because we saw the pain – not just the physical pain, also the emotional pain. And it’s hard to see a friend like that. So we hope, fast recovery and play again and in the next years."
