Racket sports are well represented at the Olympics, with tennis, badminton and table tennis enticing fans. Yet pickleball, the fastest growing sport in the United States, is nowhere to be found.
It's only a matter of time, enthusiasts say, before pickleball is sanctioned as an official Olympic sport.
"I know for a fact that the IOC is very interested in pickleball," said Seymour Rifkin, president of the World Pickleball Federation. "That is an absolute fact. The IOC, like any big international business, is interested in thriving and continuing to be the epitome event in sports."
The drive to appeal to new audiences fueled the addition of sports such as breakdancing and skateboarding to the Olympic roster. Other sports to be making their return or debut at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles include baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.
Pickleball's popularity, particularly in the United States, is unquestioned.
There are at least 13.6 million players in the U.S., according to a 2024 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Participation in pickleball, which might best be described as a mix of tennis and pingpong played with a wiffleball, grew more than 50% from 2022 to 2023. The pandemic proved to be a boon, with the sport recording a 223.5% participation rate increase since 2020. There are multiple, well-funded professional pickleball leagues in operation.
The breakneck growth has alarmed some in the tennis community who see pickleball threatening that sport's traditional dominance.
"On a club level, tennis is endangered," Novak Djokovic said recently. "If we don't do something about it, globally or collectively, paddle, pickleball in the States, they're gonna convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickleball. Because it's more economical."
It's popular. It's cheap, compared to other racket sports. Why isn't it in the Olympics?
Well, it's complicated.
THE OLYMPIC CHARTER requires one governing body to represent and regulate the sport worldwide. Pickleball has no fewer than three would-be governing bodies: Rifkin's World Pickleball Federation, the International Pickleball Federation and the Global Pickleball Federation.
Rifkin is in the throes of negotiating a merger between all three and is blunt about the sport's biggest Olympic hurdle.
"Us. Our biggest challenge is the pickleball community," Rifkin said, adding if the merger could happen, IOC board members could push pickleball through as an Olympic sport as soon as the 2028 games.
An IOC spokesperson referred ESPN to the IOC's official process, which also includes the following on adding new sports:
"The sports programme, which includes all sports for a specific edition of the Olympic Games, is determined by the IOC Session from among the sports governed by the International Federations (IFs) recognised by the IOC.
"Only sports which comply with the Olympic Charter, the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competition are eligible to be in the programme."
In order to become a permanent Olympic sport, it must be "practiced by men in at least 75 countries across four continents and by women in at least 40 countries across three continents," per the Charter. According to the World Pickleball Federation's website, there are players in 60 countries on six continents.
The website notes that enhancing the popularity of the Games is also a metric for inclusion.
A GROUP OF PLAYERS who hit the courts in the shadow of Chicago's high-rise towers on a recent July afternoon sounded enthusiastic about the prospect of an Olympic sanctioned sport.
"I could totally see it. It's a lot of fun," design executive Jack Hays said. His pickleball teammate, Jennie Jiang, echoed his comments after the two took a breather following a game. "There's strategy to it, but it's still really accessible," Jiang, a former badminton player, said. "There's also athleticism, especially at the highest levels."
Craig Bueller, who taught tennis before transitioning to be a full-time pickleball instructor for the summer, said the global appeal makes it a perfect entrant to the Olympic roster.
"Pickleball is a team sport," Bueller said. "It's growing worldwide, not only in the United States but South America and Europe."
The World Pickleball Federation's Rifkin remains optimistic that the sport can be included in the very near future. According to the Olympic charter, the addition would have to happen "not later than three years prior to the opening of the relevant Olympic Games." So it's not out of the question, but decisions would have to be made soon to adhere to that timeline.
"99% of the people say that it's too late, the earliest we could get it in [the Olympic Games] is 2032," Rifkin said. "But I'm going to tell you this, and this has come directly from an IOC member, 'If we want you in, you're in.' Is it too late for 2028? It's never too late."