Paleta Cuero, Doubles (trinquete), Men

In paleta cuero, a small paddle (at most 50 cm long and 13,5 cm wide) is used to hit the ball, which is made of leather (“cuero” is leather in Spanish). This event was played on the trinquete (a field enclosed by four walls), but paleta cuero is also played on a 36 metres frontón.

The top four nations of the 1990 World Championships qualified for the Olympic demonstrations in Barcelona, with Argentine World Champions Fernando Abadía and Fernando Elortondo eager to add the Olympic title to their tally. Their team also included Ricardo Bizzozero, the only Basque pelota player to appear in two Olympic Games. He had also competed in the paleta cuero demonstration of 1968. The Argentinians saw three close battles in the first round (40-38 versus France, 40-37 against Spain and 40-32 over Uruguay), had a relatively easy semi-final and beat Spain 40-30 in the final.