2023 Pan American Games - Preview

Next Friday, the 2023 Pan American Games opening ceremonies will happen in Santiago, Chile, and the following day the racquetball competition will begin. Eleven countries will be competing in Chile across three divisions: singles, doubles and mixed doubles. This will be the first year with Mixed Doubles on the program.

Three countries will send the maximum of six athletes (three men & three women) to Chile: Bolivia and Mexico, based on results from the 2023 Pan American Championships, and Chile, as the host country. In addition, the USA qualified three men and Argentina three women from the results of the Pan Am Championships.

The other countries qualifying two men were Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Guatemala. The other countries competing in the women’s divisions will be Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, and the USA.

The competition will begin with group play with the results being used to seed players for a medal round. Players are put in groups such that if players from the same country win all their games in their respective group, they won’t play on the same side of the draw, which means they wouldn’t play each other until the final.

However a preliminary round loss could mean players from the same country end up on the same side of the draw. That may result in team-mates playing before the final, and worst case, before the semi-finals, so only one of them has a chance at the podium.

Who won last time

Four years ago in Lima, Peru, Mexicans won five of the six events - men’s and women’s singles, doubles and team events - with Bolivia preventing the sweep by taking the Men’s Team event. Paola Longoria of Mexico won three gold medals: Women’s Singles, Doubles (with Samantha Salas) and the Team event (with Salas & Montserrat Mejia). Her team-mate Rodrigo Montoya won two gold medals: Men’s Singles and Doubles with Javier Mar. Brothers Carlos and Roland Keller and Conrrado Moscoso were the Bolivians who won Men’s Team gold.

Who’ll be there this time

Mexico and Bolivia are the current racquetball powerhouses. Mexico will be represented by Longoria, who will try to add to her total of nine (9!) Pan Am Games gold medals. Joining her will be Mejia - the current #1 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour and Alexandra Herrera (#5 on the LPRT). On the men’s side, it’ll be defending singles and doubles Montoya with his doubles partner from four years ago, Javier Mar, and Eduardo Portillo (#5 on the International Racquetball Tour [IRT]).

Bolivia will be led by Conrrado Moscoso (IRT #3), who will have Carlos Keller and Kadim Carrasco with him in Santiago. On the women’s side, Angelica Barrios - 8th the LPRT and 2022 Pan American Champion - will lead the way with former International Racquetball Federation Women’s Doubles World Champion Yazmine Sabja, and veteran Jenny Daza. Four years ago, Bolivians won 5 medals in Lima, and 4 of those were won in racquetball.

The USA will be represented by five athletes in Santiago with Daniel De La Rosa representing the USA for the first time. He’ll play Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles with Alejandro Landa. Adam Manilla is the second Men’s Singles player and he’ll also play Mixed Doubles with his sister Erika Manilla. Erika will be playing all three events: Women’s Singles and Doubles, as well as mixed. Michelle Key is the other women’s player.

Pablo Fajre will be the USA’s Head Coach with Jennifer Meyer as Assistant Coach, and Rodger Fleming as the team’s Athletic Trainer. Fajre is a long time racquetball person, but this is his first time coaching Team USA, so it’s a curious choice for coach. Similarly, Meyer has been a long time coach with the USA Junior Team, so knows the Manillas and Key from that, but we believe this is her first time coaching with the senior team.

Argentina’s women’s team will be Maria Jose Vargas - current LPRT #4 - and Natalia Mendez (LPRT #10) and their men’s team will be Diego Garcia and Fernando Kurzbard.

Team Canada will be led by Samuel Murray with Coby Iwaasa as the second men’s player, and then Frédérique Lambert and Michèle Morissette as the women’s players. Michel Gagnon will be there to coach the team with therapist Amy Barrette and Jen Saunders as the support staff.

Carla Muñoz, who was a bronze medalist in Women's Doubles at the 2011 Pan Am Games, will head up the host nation of Chile with Paula Mansilla as the second women’s player. The Chilean men will be Rafael Gatica, Jaime Mansilla and Rodrigo Salgado.

Andrés Acuña will lead the Costa Rican team, and will also be one of the flag bearers for his country at the opening ceremonies. Joining him on the courts will be Gabriel Garcia on the men’s side as well as Maricruz Ortiz and Jimena Gomez on the women’s side.

The Cuban team will be Yandy Espinosa and Maikel Moyet on the men’s side with Samira Ferrer and Kylie Larduet on the women’s side.

The Dominican Republic only qualified on the women’s side of play, so Merynanyelly Delgado and Maria Cespedes will be the only Dominicans racquetball players competing in Santiago.

A surprise in the Ecuador team, as Veronica Sotomayor will be competing. She twice been a top 10 LPRT player, but the last time was in the 2013-14 season. Sotomayor hasn’t been a regular on the LPRT or for Ecuador in recent years, but has been training with her husband Sudsy Monchik, so it will be interesting to see how she does in Santiago. Sotomayor will play with Maria Paz Muñoz. José Daniel Ugalde and Juan Francisco Cueva will be the Ecuadoran men in Chile.

The Guatemala women’s team will be Gabriela Martinez and Maria Renee Rodriguez and the men’s team will be Edwin Galicia and Juan Salvatierra. Note that the Guatemalas are not participating under their country’s flag, as their national Olympic committee is suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). But they will be there to compete.

Finally, Colombia qualified to play in Santiago in the women’s competition, but our understanding is that there won’t be any Colombians in Chile, which is unfortunate.

Pan Am Games Streaming

The Pan American Games is a large event. The largest sporting event outside the Summer Olympic Games. Thus, the broadcast rights have been bought by someone, so how easy it will be to see any of the racquetball action is uncertain.

But there is the Pan Am Sports Channel, which could be carrying some of the action. We’ll try to get word on when there will be streaming from Santiago from the IRF, so check out the IRF Facebook page or on the site better known as Twitter (@IRFRacquetball on Twitter) for updates.

Notable in their absence

This will be the first Pan Am Games without Mexican Alvaro Beltran since 1995, as Beltran competed in five consecutive games from 1999 to 2019, reaching the podium in singles or doubles each time. In five Pan Am Games, he earned 7 medals in individual events - 2 silver and 1 bronze in singles & 2 gold and 2 bronze in doubles - as well as 2 gold and 1 bronze in team events for 10 medals in all. A great international career.

Similarly, American Rhonda Rajsich’s streak of three Pan Am Games is over. She earned eight medals over those games: a silver and a bronze medal in singles and a silver and two bronze medals in doubles - as well as two silver and a bronze in the team events. Another good career record.

Finally, let’s remind you what happened four years ago in Lima.

Results Summary - 2019 Pan American Games - Lima, Peru

Men’s Singles

Gold - Rodrigo MONTOYA (Mexico)
Silver - Alvaro BELTRAN (Mexico)
Bronze - Conrrado MOSCOSO (Bolivia)
Bronze - Mario MERCADO (Colombia)

Women’s Singles

Gold - Paola LONGORIA (Mexico)
Silver - Maria José VARGAS (Argentina)
Bronze - Natalia MENDEZ (Argentina)
Bronze - Adriana RIVEROS (Colombia)

Men’s Doubles

Gold - Javier MAR & Rodrigo MONTOYA (Mexico)
Silver - Roland KELLER & Conrrado MOSCOSO (Bolivia)
Bronze - Rocky CARSON & Charles PRATT (USA)
Bronze - Andres ACUÑA & Felipe CAMACHO (Costa Rica)

Women’s Doubles

Gold - Paola LONGORIA & Samantha SALAS (Mexico)
Silver - Gabriela MARTINEZ & Maria RODRIGUEZ (Guatemala)
Bronze - Kelani LAWRENCE & Rhonda RAJSICH (USA)
Bronze - Natalia MENDEZ & Maria José VARGAS (Argentina)

Men’s Teams

Gold - Bolivia - Carlos KELLER, Roland KELLER and Conrrado MOSCOSO
Silver - Colombia - Sebastian FRANCO and Mario MERCADO
Bronze - USA - Jake BREDENBECK, Rocky CARSON, and Charles PRATT
Bronze - Mexico - Alvaro BELTRAN, Javier MAR and Rodrigo MONTOYA

Women’s Teams

Gold - Mexico - Paola LONGORIA, Montserrat MEJIA and Samantha SALAS
Silver - Argentina - Maria José VARGAS and Natalia MENDEZ
Bronze - USA - Kelani LAWRENCE & Rhonda RAJSICH
Bronze - Bolivia - Angelica BARRIOS, Valeria CENTELLAS and Jenny DAZA

Medal Table

Mexico - 5 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze = 7 total
Bolivia - 1, 1, 2 = 4
Argentina - 0, 2, 2 = 4
Colombia - 0, 1, 2 = 3
Guatemala - 0, 1, 0 = 1
USA - 0, 0, 4 = 4
Costa Rica - 0, 0, 1 = 1

Follow the bouncing ball....