Padel and the Olympics: What UK Players Should Know
A padel court got mentioned at the IOC session in 2024, and most players in the UK had no idea it happened. The sport that barely existed here five years ago is now having serious conversations about the Olympics, and almost nobody outside the FIP boardroom is talking about it.
That's strange, because it's the kind of news that changes how a sport gets funded, how many courts get built, and how seriously a beginner's local club gets taken by the council that owns the land underneath it.
Where the Olympic bid actually stands
The International Padel Federation launched what it calls an Olympic Project, and it isn't a vague wish list. FIP president Luigi Carraro met IOC president Thomas Bach directly at the Paris Games to put padel on the agenda. Argentina's own federation president, Santiago Brito, was brought in specifically to advise on the push.
Brisbane 2032 is the target most people in the sport talk about. The full sports programme for that Games won't be confirmed until 2027, so nothing is locked in yet. Los Angeles 2028 is already settled, and padel isn't part of it. Squash got the nod there instead.
Why 2032 isn't a sure thing either
Some people close to the process think 2036 is more realistic, partly because Doha has been floated as a host for that cycle and Qatar Sports Investments already backs padel heavily. A Middle Eastern Games with padel embedded in the region's sporting culture would make inclusion far easier to justify.
The IOC doesn't hand out slots for growth alone. It looks at spread across continents, gender parity, youth appeal, governance, doping compliance and whether broadcasters actually want the coverage. Padel does well on some of these and badly on others, mainly geography. The sport is still concentrated in Europe and Latin America, and that imbalance is the single biggest thing standing between padel and an Olympic slot.
The numbers behind the push
FIP's case rests on growth that's hard to argue with. Thirty million people now play padel worldwide, up from a fraction of that in 2018. The federation counts 150 countries with active play and 87 national federations, six of which joined at the most recent general assembly alone. Courts have tripled under Carraro's leadership to roughly 66,000 globally.
Padel also has something pickleball doesn't: one governing body speaking with one voice. Pickleball's Olympic case is weakened by competing tours and fractured leadership. FIP's unity across the professional game gets cited constantly as padel's biggest structural advantage in this race.
Regional multi-sport events are quietly doing a lot of the groundwork too. Padel has already featured at the Pan American Games, the South American Games and the European Games, each appearance building the operational track record the IOC wants to see before it commits a sport to the main event.
What this means if you're playing in the UK
None of this changes your Tuesday night booking. But Olympic recognition, or even a serious Olympic bid, tends to pull money and attention toward a sport faster than almost anything else. Think more UK councils investing in courts, more school and university programmes, more coverage on terrestrial television. That's the realistic knock-on effect, long before any medal gets handed out.
British padel has already grown faster than almost any other sport in the country over the past few years. An Olympic push doesn't create that momentum from nothing. It adds fuel to something that was already moving fast. Clubs that felt niche two years ago are starting to look like the early stage of something considerably bigger.
What to actually watch for
The real marker isn't a headline about padel joining the Olympics. It's the 2027 announcement of Brisbane's sports programme. That single decision will tell everyone in the sport, from FIP down to a club in Leeds, whether 2032 is real or whether the conversation shifts straight to 2036.
Until then, the sport keeps doing what got it this far: more players, more courts, more countries, and a federation that isn't waiting around to make its case.
Getting on court while the sport grows
Whatever happens with Brisbane or Doha, padel in the UK isn't slowing down anytime soon. If you're picking up a racket because a mate mentioned the Olympic buzz, or because your local leisure centre just built its first court, it's worth starting with gear that doesn't fight you while you're learning.
At 12k Padel we see a steady stream of complete beginners walking into this sport every month, and most of them are better served starting with the basics sorted rather than piecing kit together one purchase at a time. The Court Pack from 12k Padel covers exactly that, so your first sessions go into learning the game instead of working out what you're missing.
