Eleven times world champion, Iñaki Osa is the undisputed king of jai alai. He picked up a cesta, or basket, for the first time in his native town of Zumaia at the age of seven. He debuted as a professional pelotari, as the jai alai players are known, in Milan, aged sixteen and soon made the leap across the pond to the United States. Gernika, Markina, Hondarribia, and St. Jean de Luz are just a few of the fixtures on his engagements calendar for 2018. If you don’t want to miss the chance to see one of the best pelota players in history play one of the most exciting sports in the world, ask the concierge at your hotel for information.
This gentle 1.93m, 100kg giant clambers up the smooth, polished sidewall of the court with his cesta to scoop the 62mm, 120 gr ball which is coming at him at just under 300 km an hour. And with a hop, skip, and jump he deftly returns it every bit as fast.
When he’s not busy with competitions, ‘Goiko’, as he’s known to his friends, likes to spend his time surfing or playing his electric guitar, but only when his duties as a devoted father permit.
This 35-year-old native of Gipuzkoa assures his “body and game are in good shape at the moment and I’m ready to give it everything”. While it is too early to say for sure where he’ll be playing this season, one of his favourite fixtures is “The festival of El Carmen in Markina in July because I always get a great welcome and really feel at home there”. Other potential dates include Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City, St. Jean de Luz, St. Jean Pied de Port, Hondarribia and Gernika.
Red Bull and Loewe
“It’s a very interesting time for jai alai at the moment. A few years ago, the sport was in decline both here and in the States. But its popularity has grown in the French Basque Country and nowadays there is a great atmosphere in the frontons. And they have just reopened the Mexico City Jai Alai for the 2018 season. It was closed for twenty years. The game is back in Madrid and Barcelona too. They’re big cities with great potential. So things are moving”, says Osa.
The fact that Red Bull is sponsoring him attests to this. “It is really important for a sport like Jai Alai that a big brand like this has come on board. We need to take advantage of this new impetus to get more companies involved”, he adds.
Osa and Jai Alai also featured in the latest advertising campaign by luxury fashion brand Loewe, which belongs to the LVMH international consortium. Some time ago he also starred in a promo video which was filmed on the beach in Florida and in the Miami Jai Alai for sports shoe brand Converse.
‘Goiko’, considered one of the greatest pelotaris of all time, is currently in training so he reaches the new season’s matches in prime condition. You just might be lucky enough to catch him playing at a fronton near you soon. Find out because there is nothing quite as spectacular as a good game of jai alai.
