Léa Godallier and Romain Sichez officially join the PISTA athletes program

PISTA strengthens its athlete program with the official arrival of Léa Godallier and Romain Sichez. They join Dylan Guichard and Natan Etienne in a collective that now brings together four figures of French padel, with different profiles and communities. From the professional circuit to games between amateurs, PISTA wants to create bridges between two worlds that ultimately belong to the same sport.

At first glance, their concerns seem quite different.

On one side, players who organize their week around training, tournaments, and travel. On the other, thousands of amateurs who are primarily trying to solve a much more down-to-earth question: "Who's up for playing on Wednesday at 19pm?"

And yet, these two worlds belong to the same sport.

This is precisely the gamble taken by PISTA by bringing together several profiles from the French padel scene around its project: Dylan Guichard, Léa Godallier, Romain Sichez and Natan Etienne.

Different personalities, different communities, but the same idea: to support the development of a padel that is not limited to competition and in which technology can also serve daily practice.

Because behind the announcement of these new faces lies a more interesting question: What real use can professional ambassadors have for an application designed primarily for amateur gamers?

Padel is also developing far from the stands.

When we talk about the growth of padel, images come easily.

International tournaments are attracting increasing numbers of fans. French players are making their way up the circuit. New tracks are opening all over France. Brands are investing. Content creators are building ever-growing communities.

But the growth of padel also takes place in much less spectacular scenes.

A WhatsApp group missing a fourth player. A game set up at the last minute. A new player looking for partners of their skill level. A player arriving in a new city without knowing anyone. Or four enthusiasts debating for ten minutes whether their game was truly a "5" or rather a "5,5".

It is in this padel environment that PISTA chose to build its product.

The application therefore does not seek to artificially bring amateurs closer to the professional world.

Rather, she seeks to foster a two-way flow of what makes sport grow: the uses, experiences and culture of padel.

Léa Godallier and Romain Sichez officially join the PISTA athletes program — Photo credit: Rommo Agency, Aurélie Treccani

Four profiles, four ways of telling the story of padel

This also explains the choice of deliberately different profiles.

Dylan Guichard It obviously embodies the sporting and competitive dimension. His experience at the highest level provides a particularly interesting perspective on reading the game, progression, and what the notion of "level" really means in padel.

Léa Godallier She also brings top-level experience, with a career built through contact with the international circuit. She helps to bridge the gap between the demands of professional padel and a French community whose sport continues to develop.

Romain Sichez He occupies a different position. As a content creator as much as a passionate player, he sits precisely at the intersection of practice, entertainment, and community. A role that has become essential in a sport where part of the culture is now built on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok as much as on the sidelines.

Natan Etienne Finally, completes this collective with its own journey and its own community.

The goal is therefore not to bring four names together around a logo.

It is to bring together multiple perspectives on the same sport .

Being an ambassador… or actually using the product?

This is probably where the line lies between a classic sports partnership and something more interesting.

In the first case, the athlete essentially lends their image to a brand.

In the second, he uses the product.

For PISTA, the stakes are clearly on the second side.

Seeing recognized players record their games, share their results, interact with other profiles or simply use the same features as any other player adds another dimension to the partnership.

Because, ultimately, some problems remain surprisingly similar regardless of the level.

Find partners. Organize a game. Keep track of your history. Follow your friends. Share your results. Identify players you like to play with.

Obviously, a professional doesn't use a padel app exactly like an amateur.

But they may belong to the same network of players .

And this nuance is important.

Amateur sport has already undergone this transformation

In other disciplines, the digital divide between champions and weekend players has gradually narrowed.

An amateur cyclist can follow a professional's rides. A runner can compare their training with that of an athlete they admire. Yet the same platforms host training methods and performances that are entirely different.

No one imagines that a 4-hour marathon runner and an international champion experience the same sport in the same way.

However, they can share the same digital space.

Padel is still relatively young in this structure.

Today, the digital ecosystem remains largely organized around distinct functions: booking a track, registering for a tournament, chatting in a group, watching content or following results.

But as the community grows, another logic may emerge: that of a network built around the player's identity.

His level, his matches, his partners, his clubs, his statistics and, gradually, the people he follows.

When the best players also participate in the construction

Finally, there is a less visible benefit in this type of collaboration: that of the product itself.

A professional athlete possesses a perception of the game that a team of developers cannot replicate alone.

Conversely, an amateur player desperately seeking a fourth partner on Sunday morning encounters problems that a professional would almost never experience.

Therefore, building a product intended for the entire community requires confronting these realities.

Feedback from top-level players can help us reflect on the relevance of statistics, the representation of skill level, or certain sporting mechanics.

The thousands of games organized by amateurs allow us to understand the much more everyday constraints of matchmaking.

Both are useful.

Provided we never forget for whom each feature is designed.

To inspire people to play, not just to watch

This may ultimately be the most interesting role that can be played Dylan Guichard, Léa Godallier, Romain Sichez and Natan Etienne in the PISTA adventure.

Of course, their visibility helps to raise awareness of the application.

But stopping there would be to miss part of the point.

Professional padel is a dream. It produces images, performances and personalities capable of attracting new players.

Amateur padel players, on the other hand, transform this interest into hours spent on the courts.

One makes you want to play. The other brings sport to life on a daily basis.

Therefore, creating more bridges between these two worlds can be much more valuable than a simple influence campaign.

Because ultimately, whether you're playing in an international tournament or a game with friends on a Wednesday evening, the reflex often remains the same once you're off the court:

"When do we play again?"

Press Release