The World Racquetball Championships, organized by the International Racquetball Federation (IRF), were first held in 1981 as part of the World Games. The second World Championships were in 1984, and have been held every two years since.
The 2016 World Championships were in Cali, Colombia, which was the first time Worlds was in South America since 1998, when Cochabamba, Bolivia hosted the event. As in 2014, the team standings were determined by players' performances in the medal round, rather than a team-to-team competition, as was done previous to 2014. Thus, there was a group stage of play followed by a medal round with the seeding for the medal round based on the group stage results.
The 2014 Men's and Women's Singles champions were American Rocky Carson, who won a fifth consecutive title in Men's Singles, Mexican Paola Longoria, who won Women's Singles for a third consecutive time, respectively. The Men's Doubles winners were Mexicans Alvaro Beltran and Javier Moreno, who won for a third time, while the Women's Doubles title was won by Americans Aimee Ruiz and Janel Tisinger, which was the third title for Ruiz but first for Tisinger. In the Overall Team standings Mexico came out on top for the first time in World Champion history, as they won the Women's Team event and were only one point behind the USA in the Men's Team event.