Gonzalo Pieres is a former

10-goal A polo handicap is a system created by Henry Lloyd Herbert, the first president of the United States Polo Association, at the founding of the USPA in 1890 so teams could be more evenly matched when using players with varying abilities. The players ...

handicap

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

player and one of the most successful players in the sport.

Background

Gonzalo was born and grew up in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Career

Pieres began traveling to America to play polo in 1980, when he held an eight-goal handicap. His handicap had been raised to 10 within a few years. Gonzalo Pieres is recognized for turning professional polo players, into real sport professionals. He won the

Argentine Open The Argentine Open or Abierto de la República or Abierto de Argentina is one of the oldest national golf open championships. First played in 1905, when it was called the Open Championship of the River Plate, it has featured numerous notable winn ...

nine times, and the

United States Polo Association The United States Polo Association (USPA) is the national governing body for the sport of polo in the United States. Introduction Established in 1890, by David Grubbs the USPA provides resources to over 4,500 individual members and 250 polo club ...

Gold Cup seven times. He has been on the winning team in the Queen's Cup, British Open, and US Open. In 1994 Gonzalo won the Argentine triple crown with

Adolfo Cambiaso Adolfo Cambiaso (born 15 April 1975) is an Argentine professional polo player with a 10-goal handicap rating. Early years From an early age his mother, Martina de Estrada Lainez, encouraged her son Adolfo and his half brothers to play polo.

Mariano Aguerre Mariano Aguerre, (born May 25, 1969 in Buenos Aires) is a professional polo player in Argentina and the United States. He achieved a 10-goal handicap in the United States in 1994 and in Argentina in 1998. He is currently rated at 9 goals in both ...

, and

Carlos Gracida Carlos Gracida (September 5, 1960 – February 25, 2014) was a Mexican-American polo player. He reached a 10-goal handicap at the age of 25. Biography Gracida was born in Mexico City. As a product of the Gracida polo dynasty, Ca ...

. For many years Gonzalo played with

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

, and in 1992 they founded Ellerstina, a polo team that has claimed multiple titles at the Argentine Open and other high-handicap tournaments. In addition, the Pieres still have strong ties with Packer's son

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

Family

Gonzalo's sons,

Gonzalo Gonzalo may refer to: * Gonzalo (name) * Gonzalo, Dominican Republic, a small town * Isla Gonzalo, a subantarctic island operated by the Chilean Navy * Hurricane Gonzalo, 2014 See also * Gonzalez (disambiguation) * Gonzales (disambiguation) * ...

(Jr),

Facundo ''Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism'' (original Spanish title: ''Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie'') is a book written in 1845 by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a writer and journalist who became the second president of Argentina. It is a corner ...

and Nicolás, are also professional polo players with 10-goal handicaps. Gonzalo has played for Ellerstina since 1992, whereas Facundo joined the team in 2003 and Nicolás in 2011. Gonzalo has a daughter, Tatiana who is married to Mariano Aguerre also a 10 goler at Ellerstina on the 2012 season.

References

Argentine polo players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Argentina-polo-bio-stub