HEAD Penn players win at Pan Am Games
July 27, 2015
TORONTO — Held every four years, the Pan Am Games are the pinnacle event for the world’s top racquetball players to represent their country on the international stage. HEAD Penn sponsored athletes, Paola Longoria and Rocky Carson, both captured gold medals in their brackets.
The Pan Am Games offer competition in 36 sports for more than 5,000 athletes, making it one of the largest global sporting events behind the Olympic Games. The racquetball competition at the 2015 Pan Am Games featured 55 athletes from a dozen countries across the Americas. Leading the HEAD Penn delegation at the Pan Am Games was Mexico’s Paola Longoria who won three Gold Medals. In the Women’s Singles bracket, Longoria didn’t drop a game en-route to her second consecutive Pan Am Games championship. Paola also captured the Gold Medal in the Women’s Doubles event and brought home a Gold Medal in the Women’s Team competition. Longoria is now the two-time defending champion in all women’s events at the Pan Am Games. For the three-peat, she will have to continue dominating through the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. Rocky Carson came to Canada as the defending Men’s Singles Gold Medalist and just like Paola provided a repeat performance. Also not dropping a single game, the American captured the Gold Medal by knocking off the top two players from Mexico in the semifinals and final. Rocky helped lead Team USA to the Silver Medal in the Men’s Team competition. Maria Jose Vargas won the only racquetball medals for her country of Argentina with a pair of Silver Medals in the Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles events. Maria’s path to Gold was diverted in each event by fellow HEAD Penn teammate Paola Longoria. Paola, Rocky & Maria will next take some time off before the 2015-16 season kicks off on their respective professional tours in late August.