For Canadian athletes with Chilean roots, Pan Am Games will mean a lot more than just sport

Smiles, intensity and slapping hands with beach volleyball partner Brandie Wilkerson are hallmarks of a match involving Melissa Humana-Paredes. Expect the same and maybe periodic glances at the crowd over the next week in Santiago, Chile.

Fresh off a quarterfinal loss at the world championships, they are among 473 athletes representing Canada at the Pan Am Games. But this beach tournament, which runs Oct. 21-27, is more meaningful than others to Humana-Paredes, the daughter of two Chilean expatriates.

Mother Myriam Paredes will watch Melissa play in her home country for the first time, along with 20 to 30 relatives from her side of the family.

"There are a lot of emotions. It'll be their first time watching me play [in person] which is so special," she said in a recent interview with Anastasia Bucsis of CBC Sports. "I haven't had the chance to go back in a few years, maybe seven or eight.

"I'm not sure how I'm going to feel on the court until I'm there. It's going to be a lot more than volleyball."

Humana-Paredes isn't the only Canadian athlete with family ties to Chile. Andrea Park was born there and will have about 10 relatives in the stands at Contact Sports Center watching her three children in taekwondo — daughter Skylar and sons Tae-Ku and Braven of Winnipeg.

Fifty years ago, Myriam and husband Hernan Humana had their lives changed forever with the beginning of a brutal military dictatorship in Chile that lasted nearly two decades.

WATCH | Match replay: Humana-Paredes, Wilkerson world quarterfinal loss:

The military regime violated human rights and brutally persecuted opponents, imprisoning and torturing of 40,000 civilians, leaving a toll of 3,200 killed. A further 200,000 Chileans reportedly fled the