Fredericksburg Ultimate Player and U.S. Junior Mixed Team in Final at World

Our Far-Flung Correspondents: Letter from Spain

By Paul Cymrot, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Art by Paul Cymrot

Logroño is a city of warm stone buildings that radiate out from a fine cathedral and plaza near the south bank of the Ebro River. It is 150 miles south of Bilbao and the Bay of Biscay, in northernmost Spain, which I’ve heard of but know nothing about. In the summer it is hot and always has been; the main streets are split by colonnades, so you can walk in the shade or the sun, depending on the time of day and year. As you move away from the cathedral plaza, you go from cobblestone to brick underfoot and then to concrete pavers and asphalt. The buildings are 7 stories tall with balconies and very serious retracting metal shutters to keep out heat and potential invaders.

On the south side of town the boulevards are made for cars, and the apartment blocks for a utopian future, and there is a red-roofed football stadium with seats for 10,000 fans. It is called the Estadio Municipal Las Gaunas, and it will host the 2026 World Junior Ultimate Championship games at the end of the tournament.

Friday afternoon, it was the destination for the Parade of Nations. There are 47 teams from 26 countries, made up of more than 1,000 ultimate players, plus coaches and medics and staff. All of them paraded through the streets of town wearing their bright jerseys and carrying banners and flags, while two separate marching bands kept the pace lively and joyous.

Since this is a youth tournament and all athletes are between the ages of 14 and 19, there is a strong contingent of parents and siblings here, as well. You can hardly imagine a more enthusiastic parade audience. Inside the stadium, all the players gathered on the field and all the parents and spectators gathered in the stands. The vice mayor and the president of the region welcomed us all. Then Spain played Mexico in a showcase game, and all the rest of the athletes feasted on paella and bocadillos de jamon from food trucks arrayed outside the stadium.

The United States delegation is made up of three teams. We have an Open team, a Women’s team, and a Mixed team, with our daughter Ellie Cymrot. Open means anyone can play. It is usually all male and male-matching, but some teams have female players on them, too. The Woman’s team is all female-matching players. The mixed team has even numbers of both, and gameplay is co-ed. DSD players play wherever they feel most comfortable. Trans and non-binary athletes are welcome here, too. If these gender terms are new to you, just hang in there. Gameplay is fair, everyone is accommodated, and the world hasn’t ended.

While the Estadio Municipal awaits the championship games, the rest of the action takes place a short walk away at the Ciudad Deportiva Pradoviejo. Literally the “Sports City on the Old Meadow,” the Pradoviejo are six turf fields with ample parking, a café, and a view of the mountains of the Sierra Cebollera Natural Park to the south. Banners wave and shade tents abound. Entry costs 30 Euros for the week. Entry passes dangle from bright pink lanyards. and they tug and spin in the wind like half-grounded kites. With 12 teams playing all at once, and 12 more using the sidelines to warm up, there is action in every direction, plus cheers, chants, drums and horns.

The USA Mixed team started the tournament with a Sunday double header—Hong Kong in the morning and China in the afternoon. The U.S. team wears red jerseys with “USA” on the front, along with dark blue shorts with white trim. The players’ names are in small white letters on their backs, and their numbers are in large ones, in a font where the 1’s and 7’s look the same, as well as the 5’s and 6’s, 3’s and 8’s.

Ultimate begins with teams on opposite sides of the field from each other, 70 yards apart. The team that will receive the disc, and thereby start on offense, raises their hands to indicate that they’re ready. A player from the other team then throws the disc to them as high and as far as they can, like a kickoff in football before the NFL made it confusing a couple years ago. In Ultimate, this kickoff is called a “pull.” While the pull is in the air, the seven players who will be on defense race down the field to match up against their opposite player or to set up a zone.

Play is continuous. The goal is to get the disc into your end zone, as in football. Unlike football, throws can be made in any direction. Whoever makes the catch is the one to make the next throw. As soon as they can stop their forward momentum with the disc, they have to keep one foot firmly planted in place. That‘s their pivot foot, and they can’t move it until they throw the disc. The defender stands in front of them and waves their arms and begins a slow count to 10, what’s known as the stall count. If the defender reaches 10 before the person with the disc makes a throw, that’s a kind of turnover called a stall. This rarely happens.

What usually happens, and what we saw countless times in the game against Hong Kong and every game, is that the person with the disc does their best to ignore the counting defender and scans the field for their teammates cutting into empty space. Some teammates will run towards them, some away from them, each with a defender trying to prevent the throw from getting through. When a throw goes up, the disc is fair game. Anyone can catch it. A defender can also just knock it away. If the same team that threw it catches it, the process begins again. If the defense intercepts it, or a pass goes amiss or out of bounds, it’s a turnover and the other team gets the disc. The defense is now the offense and vice versa. This goes on until someone gets a catch in their end zone. Sometimes it takes only one throw. Sometimes there might be turnover after turnover until someone scores.

Hong Kong received the opening pull in the match with the U.S., worked the disc up the field, and scored to take a 1-0 lead. After a point, the teams reset to their opposite end zones, and the scoring teams pulls to the other. USA scored on their possession. On the next, the U.S. forced a turnover and scored, to take a 2-1 lead. From then on, the US dominated, going on to win 13-3.

The US beat China in the afternoon game 13-4.

Monday, they topped France 13-7.

Tuesday morning, they survived a scare against 7th ranked Switzerland 13-10, then beat Austria 13-2 in the afternoon game.

Wednesday, they rolled past Singapore 13-7, to complete the pool play portion of the tournament undefeated.

On Thursday they downed Colombia 13-5 in the quarterfinals, and on Friday in the semis beat France again, 13-7.

The U.S. Mixed Team plays Canada Saturday at noon in the Estadio (6 a.m. EST) for the championship.

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Paul Cymrot is the owner of Riverby Books in Fredericksburg, Va.