Heather Bansley retires from beach volleyball to join coaching ranks

Two-time Olympian Heather Bansley is retiring from beach volleyball and entering the coaching ranks.

The 34-year-old from Waterdown, Ont., is joining the Canadian coaching staff of Volleyball Canada's NextGen program.

"I'm going to miss training every day," Bansley said in a news release. "I am an athlete who loved training. I will really miss having the opportunity to train around the world on some amazing beaches."

Bansley and partner Brandie Wilkerson of Toronto made it to the quarter-finals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before losing to Latvia's Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina.

They had their most successful season as a tandem in 2018, when they earned three gold medals on the FIVB World Tour and rose to the world No. 1 ranking.

She teamed with Sarah Pavan at the 2016 Games in Rio, where they advanced to the quarter-finals before falling to eventual gold medallists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany.

In mid-February, Wilkerson announced the split with Bansley on social media and said she was partnering with former world junior and college champion Sophie Bukovec of Toronto for the upcoming season. They are currently training in Brazil.

The 29-year-old Wilkerson has been playing with American Sarah Hughes on the Association of Volleyball Professionals circuit for the last few seasons when she wasn't playing FIVB events with Bansley.