Mano, Doubles (trinquete), Men

In the mano event of pelota basque, the ball is played with the bare hand. This event was played on the trinquete (a field enclosed by four walls), but mano is also played on a 36 metres frontón.

The top four nations of the 1990 World Championships qualified for the Olympic demonstrations in Barcelona, although only two of the actual medal winners showed in Barcelona – the Mexicans Raúl Saldaña and Pedro Santamaría, silver medallists two years earlier. The Mexicans had a difficult round-robin, losing to Spain and France, but picked themselves up and beat those nations when it mattered, in the semi-finals and finals. For Santamaría it was the first title of many to come, as he would win the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Championships, as well as the 1995 and 2003 Pan American title in the same event.