Last Friday July 26, at 19:30 p.m., the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games in “The City of Lights”.

This edition includes 45 official sports, including only 3 racket sports: badminton, tennis and table tennis. So why not padel?

Luigi Carraro, president of the FIP, expressed his desire to incorporate padel into the Olympics for several years, at least one requirement is not yet met for our sport to be part of the 5 Olympic rings.

Requirement 1

Sport must be regulated by an international body and conform to ethical standards established by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). In this case, it's FIP. So, this point is validated.

Requirement 2

The IOC requires the international body to regulate the sport according to the World Anti-Doping Agency's World Anti-Doping Code, to ensure fair and equitable competition. There FIP agrees with it, this point is also valid.

Requirement 3

The sport should not include motorized equipment, because the competition should be based on the skills of the athletes, without external elements. Padel does not require any motorized equipment, so third point validated.

Requirement 4

For men, the sport must be practiced in at least 75 countries and on 4 continents, and for women, in 40 countries and on 3 continents. Unfortunately, it is this requirement that padel does not yet meet since we are at 71 Federations according to the FIP website.

Padel-JO-Players

Requirement 5

This is not a requirement set in stone for the Olympic Games, but the fact that only Argentina and Spain currently occupy the first places in the world ranking can be a brake. Indeed, if the Olympic Committee finds that only two nations are in the running for gold and silver, it will probably prefer to wait until the competition is organized. The last European Championships did not work in our favor, and the next world championships will see, as always, Argentina and Spain in the final.

Padel is one of the fastest growing sports in the world with 2.000 million euros invested in padel in 2023 according to the Deloitte firm. However, there is still work to be done to make it an Olympic discipline. Let's see how international sports federations and committees will act to make padel the 4th racket sport of the Olympic Games.

Sebastian diaz

Sebastián Díaz is a sports project manager specialized in the world of padel.
Currently he is the director of Grancia Padel Club in Switzerland, and he will explore the field of writing to share his passion for this sport through each of his articles.

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