The Racketlon World Championships takes place in the superb Victoria Sports Centre in Rotterdam this August. Boasting 12 squash courts, 15 tennis courts and importantly a very comfortable bar, 422 players will compete across 30 categories to find the Overall World’s Best Racket Player of 2024.
For good reason Racketlon is often referred to as the Ironman of Racket Sports. Starting at 9am through to midnight if necessary, players have been known to grind through 3 or 4 matches a day – that’s 4 x 4 = 16 matches of court time – an exhausting pursuit! And if still standing, many of these Players will stay a few days after the crowning of the Singles Champions. With aching joints and muscles they will battle for a further 2 days to determine the World’s Best Racketlon National Team in this 21st gathering.
77 teams from 16 countries will battle across the four sports of Table Tennis, Badminton, Squash and Tennis in a great display of friendly competitive rivalry. It’s a powerful human instinct to be part of a bigger group, a tribe if you like. And witnessing the camaraderie across competitive success and failure is a great example of the amplifying power of groups of people acting together for a common good cause. The defending Danish Champions will head to head with old rivals such as France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Switzerland, Sweden and First Timers Hong Kong. It truly is a fantastic sight of tribal unison.
But perhaps the strongest, most powerful human tribal unit is the Family Unit. And of the 422 entrants, over 1/4 are family units (or dreaming of becoming a family unit one day!). We have couples, brothers, siblings, fathers, sons and all other possible combinations.
I am sure you have heard of the Griffiths brothers but there are the Mamié Brothers too – a pair of elite athletes from Switzerland. Noah says he is excited to be part of a strong Men’s Elite Draw with some surprisingly big name comebacks. He says he is fortunate to have an understanding brother of a similar playing level which makes for good practice sessions. I think their playing levels are closer than “similar” because did you know they have had to play a gummi arm against each other!
We have the Cavé siblings from France with Pauline rocketing into the Womens Elite this year. She is in the top half of the draw with the number 1 seed Natalie Vogel, but if you’ve read any of my other articles you know she will need to be in the present, not the future and totally focus on her first match v Steiner of Austria (another athlete entering with a Brother).
The Barton Father Son combination are regular entrants from the UK and other well-known Father Son combos are the Haus of Sach and and Haus of Böhm families. Peter Barton says he is excited for the World Champs, hoping it is as good as 2023 which was fantastic and very well organised. He loves Rotterdam and says the venue is absolutely perfect in every respect. Unless anyone fancies building a large Racketlon centre in Liverpool, UK he hopes Victoria, Rotterdam will be home to the World Champs for many years to come. Peter travels and competes with his son Ollie and is still hopeful that his wife or 2 daughters will play mixed with him one day.
I used to play Mixed with my mum, because it was her who introduced me to badminton when I was 10 years old. In turn I introduced my four kids to Racket Sports. I know from experience that introducing and coaching your kid is a highly rewarding and immensely stressful activity, probably even more taxing than playing a gummi arm. Despite the tightrope, some parents are driven along this path and forge names that last throughout History. Well known “following in your footsteps” success stories are the Williams Sisters and their parents, Andy Murray and his Mum. Can we count Jesus Christ, Genghis Khan, Biden and Donald Trump…?
These famous and infamous names stand out because actually it’s a rather rare occurrence. A more common less stressful and more successful approach is to build an environment of happy and fun participation. Helpful encouragement is a better approach because let’s face it, what respectful father wants to be beaten by their 10 year old daughter?
Whether you are arriving as a Family (and hopefully still departing on talking terms) or whether you are representing your “tribal” Nation, just know you are part of our Racketlon Family ! Good luck everyone – have fun playing. When you’re not playing, have a positive impact and give your best support too. You never know, it might be the starting point of building your own Family Unit. ❤️🙏
Simon Lau
who met his wife playing badminton, father of 4, O55 Racketlon Player and GB Team Captain O55
