The “Swiss Army Knife”, Line Meites offers us the 2nd part of her column “The Padel : fight between the sexes? ”. Direction the competition and women.

Do as for gentlemen at the ladies?

Some women play padel. Others play padel AND like to compete. Should we apologize for this? No longer doing tournaments? Or maybe, all together, think about how to better adapt the whole to see if solutions emerge and are achievable? Girls already have a lot fewer tournaments on offer over the year. We are at 1 for 3-4 in ratio!

With good partners / sponsors, thoughtful, anticipated and well chosen, some tournaments have already offered the night from Saturday to Sunday free for participants, a meal on Saturday evening at a lower cost, shuttles from the station or airport-club-hotel (Note that no shuttle from Toulouse train station to the hotel or club was planned for the French Championships!), etc.

A special effort is more and more necessary concerning transport and accommodation ... The players claim it and wait for it. I realized that, regarding women in any case, these points often came back as a barrier to participation in a tournament.

We don't make a living at all at padel, it's out of passion, and no one is forcing us to do it, it's true. However, to try to compensate for these costs, we like to see that the organizers think of us, try to do the best, respecting ALL the participants, girls or boys… and this is, unfortunately, not always the case.

Differences felt between girls and boys

Unfortunately yes ... There are clearly differences in treatment between girls and boys today in France. These are facts that have been raised by many of us, and that I myself have experienced. This affects both the programming of the matches (hours and pitches) and the prize money awarded at the end.

Regarding the scheduling of games, it is sometimes incredible to see that half women will play Sunday on the 18 8h30 field mat, to leave the 1 and 2 men's semifinals at 10h. Knowing that they played the ¼ the night before at 20h30, after those of the boys, when the club was empty.

Incredible to see that, if the girls had not gathered to go see the referee at the French Championships, and ask that a semi-final be played on the central and be filmed, only one match, of the whole championship of France, would have been played on the central before the final. In other words, only a ¼ final and the women's final were scheduled on the central ground of the ENTIRE championship… There were about 15 men's matches played in all on the central…

As for the prize-money, it is an eternal debate, not only padel. It is normal to understand that a women's tournament is less profitable for a club. 12 women's teams will earn less, consume and use the services of the club, than a tournament with 24 men's teams (even if the women defend themselves at the bar too…). But on the other hand, is it normal to pay the same entry fees as men at the same tournament?

Some clubs have already chosen to make a gesture for the players, by reducing the registration fees. Again, it's nice and doesn't cost the club much, in the end. When we see the winners leave with a check for more than €700 for 2, and at the same time and for the same category of tournament, the women receive €400, it's weird... by combining the last 2 paragraphs, we're not not at the top...

This lack of consideration and recognition can perhaps be understood. The female game is different from its male counterpart. It is a fact and not only at padel, once again. But some people like the female game. Some organizers of big events are even considering offering only a female tournament in the future ...

This was also the case for the superb tournament of padel P1000 ladies organized last September by Stéphan Rodriguez and his team at TCM5. We had great quality performances and quality live streaming for us girls. This type of event must multiply to boost the padel female.

Le Padel : fight of the sexes?

Women want more in the south

Line Meites

Line Meites is one of the best French players in padel. It's the voice of your live on Padel Magazine. But not only, she also hosts the column “Investigations of the Swiss Army Knife”. Every month, she will come back to a controversy or a theme that is close to her heart.