This past week I had the incredible opportunity to bowl in the largest international sports gathering in Cleveland, Ohio’s history! The nearly two-week-long Pan American games featured over 4,000 athletes, and I competed in singles, doubles, and all events categories for the sport of Bowling. This involved a 6-game qualifying round and a 3-game total pinfall medal round for singles, a 3-game qualifying round and 3-game medal round for doubles, and a 3-game medal round for all events. In total, I bowled 18 games over 5 days, including one day of open practice. The event was held at Rollhouse Parma in Cleveland, OH.
What made this event truly unique was that there were no cash prizes—just medals: Gold, Silver, and Bronze for the top three players. The entire games had an Olympic feel to them. We had medics on-site, large coolers of water reminiscent of a football game, lots of signage, and helpful volunteers. Participants competed in their respective age categories, and you had to be at least 30 years old to compete. At 46, I bowled in the 40+ category. Remarkably, there were people in their 70s bowling and people in their 90s running!
Upon check-in I received an athlete badge with my picture on it and a nice backpack filled with goodies. During open practice on Monday, I got my surfaces right and selected the balls I would use for the week. The competition allowed a limit of 4 balls, and I brought 5. I settled on using the RotoGrip XCell at 2000 Grit TruCuT, the Hammer Arctic Vibe at P5000D TruCuT, the Hammer Envy Tour at 3000 grit TruCuT, and my CtD Spare Ball at 6500 TruCut Polish Powered By Turtle Wax. I brought a Storm IQ Tour at 4000 but decided during practice that I wouldn’t need it.
Here is a video on why surface prep is important.
I met people from all over the world, bowling with some wonderful men from Mongolia and India. It was a great experience and one I will never forget. They had a professional camera crew interviewing and filming as the competition when on, which gave a PBA Tour vibe to the event.
For singles, I averaged 240.5 for 9 games to win my first gold medal. For doubles, I averaged 247 to win a doubles gold with my wife by just 3 pins. Lastly, for all events, I averaged 244 to win my third gold medal, with a total pinfall of 4,380 pins for a 243 tournament average over 18 games. I’m grateful to have a day job that pays the bills, but it was fun to feel like a…