V Perhaps it is no coincidence that at the end of the first World Cup 2023 the “Women with the Heart of Fire” stand at the top. For the I’x K’at, as their name in the Maya language Kaqchikel is, they have been well-drilled for years – and know how to break boundaries. They founded in 2018 in Guatemala the first women’s team of the traditional Mesoamerican ball sport Pok-Ta-Pok.
The idea came from Francisca Elías, a teacher of the Maya language Kaqchikel, who also teaches sports. When she, with her students, read the Popol Vuh, one of the most important preserved Maya texts in which the game appears, the women asked fascinated whether Elías knew the rules. Elías did not know them, but was hooked. After researching with the students, she founded a team that traveled in 2018 to the historic first national tournament. Otherwise there were only men’s teams.
Pok-Ta-Pok, also known as Ulama or Juego de Pelota, is one of the oldest ball games in the world and was played by the Maya, Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples. Because it existed across millennia and cultural regions, there was no single version, nor is there a precise set of rules handed down.
Common to all variants is that they are played with a hard rubber ball that must not be touched with hands or feet, often with ritual significance. Among the Aztecs there were even professional players. And as research took for granted: only men played.
Return to Old Roots
Yet statues of women ball players debunked this sexism. According to researcher Maria Isabel Ramos, newer studies also show that women began playing again around 1900. The students of I’x K’at from Guatemala thus tread in historical footsteps. For them this is not only a fight for participation but also a return. Because the colonial rulers banned the ball game and thus almost erased it. Pok-Ta-Pok existed only in the niche; only recently has there been a revival. Today the heavy ball is played mainly with the hip. It requires a lot of athleticism, the players must continually throw themselves to the ground. Women play two halves of ten minutes each. Whoever brings the ball into the opponent’s half scores points. And whoever sends it through a three-meter-high ring wins immediately.
I’x K’at often win, but the team is still mocked. “Other students say: how embarrassing, a Maya ball game,” says player Jesica to the news agency Agencia Presentes. “That is due to a lack of self-confidence or knowledge.” For the Indigenous women, Pok-Ta-Pok means not being ashamed of their heritage any longer. Before the match they perform ceremonies and call on their guardian spirits.
“The Maya game is a way to reclaim their identity,” Francisca Elías told AFP. Today, she says, her students despite societal prejudices would proudly say: I am Maya.
This pride grows not only in Guatemala. In 2020, I’x K’at travelled abroad for the first time to a tournament in Chiapas, Mexico. In the same year they played against men in their homeland—and they won. They lost to the male national champions in Guatemala, but only narrowly. In 2022 the women organized a tournament themselves. That made the first Women’s World Cup in 2023 seem a logical consequence. Three more teams from Mexico, El Salvador and Belize participated. The Guatemalan women are meanwhile developing into a dominating force – they also won the title in 2025. Player Lize, who had previously played football for 20 years, describes Pok-Ta-Pok as liberation: Previously she lived in restrictions. “Now everything is wide.”
