2024 Pan American Championships - Preview

The 2024 Pan American Racquetball Championships begin Saturday in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The tournament was originally scheduled to be in Bolivia, but it was switched earlier this year.

There will be a team competition in Guatemala. So after playing the five individual events - men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and also mixed doubles - countries will face off in both men’s and women’s best of three match battles: two singles and one doubles. The order of the matches, whether doubles is played first, second or third, as well as which singles match is played when, varies by round.

Although we have to wait until teams are in Guatemala for the match schedule to be released, both the USA and Canada have announced who they will be sending to Guatemala, and both are a mix of veterans and young players.

On Team USA are Jake Bredenbeck, Sam Bredenbeck and Charlie Pratt on the men’s side, with Michelle Key, Naomi Ros and Lexi York on the women’s side. The Bredenbecks will play Men’s Doubles with Jake also playing singles and Sam playing Mixed Doubles with Key. Pratt will be the second Men’s Singles player. Key will also play singles, as will York. Ros and York will be the USA Women’s Doubles team.

Team Canada will be Kurtis Cullen, Coby Iwaasa and Samuel Murray as the men’s team with Juliette Parent, Marjolaine Parent and Danielle Ramsay as the women’s team. Murray will play Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles with Iwaasa, who will also play Mixed doubles will Juliette Parent. Juliette will play Women’s Singles, as will Ramsay. Ramsay and Marjolaine Parent will be the Women’s Doubles team.

2027 Pan American Games

The 2027 Pan American Games were scheduled to be in Barranquilla, Colombia, but Barranquilla was unselected for the games in January due to failing to meet contractual obligations. While that was surprising to us on the outside, apparently, it was not a surprise to those on the inside.

Two cities came forward as potential hosts for 2027: Ascunción, Paraguay, and Lima, Peru. Paraguay had never hosted the games before, while Lima was the host in 2019. Perhaps because of that previous experience, Lima narrowly won the selection vote (28 to 24), and will host the Pan American Games for a second time in less than a decade.

Racquetball was part of the 2019 Games in Peru, and we understand the courts are still there, so racquetball should be on the program again in 2027. Paraguay hasn’t been a racquetball country, so they would have needed to build courts. That might have happened, as Peru’s courts were newly built for the 2019 games. But there have been times when the host nation - Brazil in 2007 - didn’t want to build courts, so racquetball was excluded from the games that year.

Thus, selecting Lima should be a good thing for racquetball.

2024 Pan Am Championships Medalists

Below is a summary of the medalists at the 2023 Pan American Championships to refresh your memory. Also, if you want to see any of the finals from last year (as well as some matches from earlier in the tournament), check out the International Racquetball Federation (IRF) YouTube channel.

XXXIV Pan American Racquetball Championships
Guatemala City, Guatemala - April 1-8, 2023

Results Summary

Women’s Singles

Gold - Montserrat Mejia (Mexico)
Silver - María José Vargas (Argentina)
Bronze - Natalia Mendez (Argentina) and Maricruz Ortiz (Costa Rica)

Men's Singles

Gold - Conrrado Moscoso (Bolivia)
Silver - Carlos Keller (Bolivia)
Bronze - Jake Bredenbeck (USA) and Diego Garcia (Argentina)

Women's Doubles

Gold - Alexandra Herrera & Montserrat Mejia (Mexico)
Silver - Gabriela Martinez & Maria Renee Rodriguez (Guatemala)
Bronze - Valeria Centellas & Natalia Mendez (Argentina) and Angelica Barrios & Jenny Daza (Bolivia)

Men's Doubles

Gold - Rodrigo Montoya & Eduardo Portillo (Mexico)
Silver - Kadim Carrasco & Conrrado Moscoso (Bolivia)
Bronze - Jake Bredenbeck & Sam Bredenbeck (USA) and Andres Acuña & Gabriel Garcia (Costa Rica)

Mixed Doubles

Gold - Angelica Barrios & Conrrado Moscoso (Bolivia)
Silver - Paola Longoria & Rodrigo Montoya (Mexico)
Bronze - Sam Bredenbeck & Michelle Key (USA) and Maria Jose Vargas & Diego Garcia (Argentina)

Follow the bouncing ball….