Padel at the Olympics: Badly embarked?

Le padel at the Olympic Games remains an objective of the International Federation of Padel. But you will see that since the start of the year, the chances of joining the Olympic family have been reduced. For some even: The padel at the 2024 Olympics, it's over.

But you will see that if the file is not obvious, all is not yet completely lost for 2024.

The settlement does not date from yesterday

First and foremost, the Olympic Rules stipulate that the new sport to be included in the Olympic Games must be practiced:

By men in 50 countries on three different continents
by women in 35 countries on three different continents

It is Armand de Rendinger, specialist of the Olympic Games who explained it to our colleague from Europe 1 last February.

But for now, if the padel is taking off and that it is now practiced on all continents, not certain that the number of licensees, for example, can play in favor of padel. Note, however, that the padel is a leisure sport. And the Olympic regulations speak of “practitioners” and not of license holders. What is important here.

Moreover, according to Armand de Rendinguer at the microphones of Europe 1, the criteria for joining the Olympic Games are “rarely applied".

The other point that has been put forward is the number of athletes at the Olympics: 10500. If we add more, or if we add a new sport, we must remove some. There are then 2 possibilities: Either we decrease the number of sportsmen in an Olympic sport, or even we remove a sport from the Olympic Games.

The image is very important

If there is the regulation, there is also “the image of sport” added to the Olympics. And this is perhaps the strong point of the padel : We have seen: the padel is a sport that is growing all over the world. Obviously, we are not at the football stadium, but it is a sport which has a very good dynamic, especially when we know the past of padel.

The problem here may be the different cases, international tensions between different institutions ... As for example, the problems that we can have between the World Padel Tour / Monte Carlo International Sports / Continental American Padel Federation or the International Federation of Padel / European Association of Padel... Not to mention the conflicts in some countries where the padel is disputed by different institutions.

But as a whole, the padel is the sport of trending, and even of the 21st century, for us. More and more personalities are seizing the padel and promote it. The padel is therefore sometimes assimilated to other sports such as football ...

This sport can finally bring financial returns to the Olympic Games. If this is not necessarily immediate (although ...) we see that many private individuals are betting on padel. So why not the Olympics?

But since December 2018, the carrots are cooked?

In any case, it's more complicated than expected, even if nothing is fully played yet. As you know, the organizers of Paris 2024 proposed at the end of December climbing, surfing and skateboarding. In December 2019, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must validate or not these additional sports for the Olympics 2024.

No padel at the Olympic games ?

Obviously, we would have liked the padel is one of the sports offered by the organizers. It would have been easier.

However, the International Federation of Padel still seems to cling to this possibility. And positive signals come to give new hope like the European Olympic Games which could “perhaps welcome the padel”In Poland in 2023.

Du Padel at the 2023 European Olympic Games?

We also see the French Tennis Federation and politicians believe it.

Le padel, can it become an Olympic sport in 2024?

France a medal chance?

Another element and not least: France has a chance of medals at the Olympic Games in Paris. It all depends on whether we are talking about individual events or teams.

If it is an individual tournament, France has no chance to go very far. Spain and Argentina (and Brazil for the 3th place) will be the big winners.

On the other hand, if one reasons in competition by team, France showed that it could play an 3e place. Even if obviously, it would depend on many factors.

And 2024 is still far away.

But necessarily France, wishes to privilege Sports where she has athletes who can bring back medals in 2024. For the moment, it is not obvious, even if everything is possible.

Competition

It's not just the padel in life. Except for Padel Magazine. Unfortunately, he is not consulted. So we can not do much.

More seriously, in France, other sports are trendy. We often talk about squash desperately trying to be part of the Olympic family and sport in which France has always had chances of medals.

But there is also talk of a national sport: the Pétanque. France is one of the best nations in the world.

These sports and others follow a similar reasoning to ours and hope that the IOC will backtrack to integrate a sport not proposed by Tony Estanguet's team,

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.