Racketlon has had another fantastic year in 2024, with 23 different international tournaments and very exciting developments for the sport. Let’s review the year and who and what you, the players, have voted for as the year’s best.
Best Junior
Having climbed, at the age of just 16, to number five in women’s singles rankings, Holly Ranson was the clear winner of this category. To be so good so young is impressive enough in any sport, but especially so in racketlon, where players need to be dedicated enough to find the time to practice (basically) four sports a lot. She made the final of the Swiss Open with impressive +25 and +20 wins over Stephanie Chung and Kirsten Kaptein and, at the Worlds, won gold with the U18s GB teams, gold in the Girls U21 singles, as well as stepping up to the (open age) 1st team and helping them to the final! Teammate Matilda Parslow, who is on the GB team’s selection panel, says, “Holly is a very talented player. She is calm, level-headed and positive. She’s a great asset to the GB team and is always working hard to improve.” Holly followed her Rotterdam success with bronze in the Women’s Elite and gold in the mixed in India, and gold, gold, and silver in the Elite, Women’s Doubles, and Mixed in La Santa. The Ranson household is probably already having to invest in a new cupboard to hold all the silverware…
Best Senior
Convincing winner of this category is Graham. King by name and king by nature, he is, as well as one of the most common faces on tour, tireless in his work to develop our sport, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of players, systems, matches, and rules (which was a massive help to me when he was the international delegate for the Norwegian Open I ran). He keeps in remarkable shape, having played a whopping 82 matches this year – often doubles, open age, and seniors all in one weekend. (Racketlon pub quiz question: How many international racketlon matches he has played in his career? Answer at the bottom of the article.) This is in addition to domestic racketlon tournaments and tournaments and matches in the individual sports. This year, he took home an impressive silver in the World Championships Seniors +70, losing by just nine to the winner Steen Hesselbjerg, as well as four other silver medals.
Best Evangelist (best at promoting/growing racketlon)
This category was a three-way tie between Mandrin Mouchet, Patrick Moran, and Mohammed Tarik Koubaa, a result that, actually, with the three being located in three different corners of the globe, perfectly illustrates how racketlon is growing worldwide and what this award is all about. All three live and breathe racketlon and racket sports.
Mandrin Mouchet has an Instagram account, titled the __the_rack, with over 6,000 followers, where basically all the content is about racketlon or racket sports. He has been especially busy this year, playing nine international tournaments, even travelling all the way to Hong Kong and Thailand earlier in the year, all of which helped him to get into the FIR Race finals. Mandrin now deservedly holds the official position as FIR Ambassador and has been a key force behind setting up the FIR Ambassador network, finding amazing potential new venues for racketlon in places such as Singapore, Japan, Portugal, and Colombia. One respondent says, “He is undeniably the best promoter of Racketlon. I think his work and engagement for our sport deserve to be appreciated! He is a model to make people know about racketlon.”
Patrick Moran has built USA Racketlon from basically the ground up, with boundless enthusiasm. He plays hours and hours of sport pretty much every week often managing to fit in two, three, or even all four racket sports into a regular day’s training! His Instagram is not too dissimilar from Mandrin’s actually – with the added inclusion of pizza, travel/New York, and his very cute dog, Pumba (the account is actually named after him – @pumbapat). Thanks to Pat, there’s a very active racketlon scene in New York and, this year, USA submitted two teams for the first time to the World Championships, no mean feat considering the flights cost and duration, and that people did is testament to Pat’s energy and organisation. He was also runner-up at the Massachusetts Racket Masters and winner of the B category at the Norwegian Open. One respondent says, “Pat’s dedication to racket sports is second to none, he has always worked tirelessly to organize training sessions and tournaments while maintaining his own intense training schedule. When I first met Pat I had no interest in any racket sports besides badminton, but I was inspired to get involved over the years later by his consistent enthusiasm and the positive and welcoming community he’s created.”
There may be no more well connected person in the whole of racket sports than Mohammed Tarik Koubaa. Not only is he is super friendly with all of the racketlon community, he is very knowledgeable about developments in racketlon worldwide and all of the individual sports, and has chatted to many tennis professionals. He recently started worked as head of Global Services at the Professional Tennis Players Association, working directly with over 25 pro tennis players to support players in their training locations with things such as hitting partners, transport, and accommodation. He is the first non-European player to win gold in a World Championships singles category; an Elite World tour event in both singles and doubles; and to become world number in a ranking category (40+). He absolutely dominates at seniors level, having won his last six events, including the World Championships – and none of the winning margins were under 20! Hopefully his ardent support of his beloved Morocco will result in a Morocco team one day. One respondent says, “It is so much fun to have Mohammed on the tour; he makes the atmosphere more enjoyable and definitely funnier!”
There were also scatterings of votes for head of Austrian racketlon Roland Pichler, FIR President Duncan Stahl, France’s Josselin Gadé, Sanne Veldkamp, New Zealand’s Sion Wiggin, Jules Riss (who embarked on an epic ‘tour of the world of sport’), James Pope, and me (thank you very much to whoever voted for me).
Racketlon MVP
For all the reasons mentioned, the most valuable player/person in the world of racketlon in 2024 is Luke Griffiths. Not only is he an incredible player (and at only 21 years old perhaps the chance to become the GOAT? Only time will tell!), he displays great sportsmanship and off-the-court is friendly with everyone and goes out of his way to speak to and encourage the youngest players especially.
Since, however, we have already discussed Luke a lot, praise for Stine Jacobsen, who got the second highest number of votes. The Dane had surgery earlier this year and rehab was touch and go for the World Championships – but she won it! She also recently made the final of the FIR Race Finals in Switzerland, narrowly losing out in the final to Nathalie Vogel (who she actually beat the day before in the group). One respondent says, “Stine is a fantastic role model, an all round great person and an inspiration to young female players.” And Danish teammate Kresten Hougaard says, “She takes everything with a smile and a laugh. That’s what we love about her. Even when she is struggling with her back or other issues. She is a great partner – very forgiving and a good teammate. We are very lucky to have her in Danish Racketlon.”
And of course we must mention Duncan Stahl, the head of FIR who ultimately makes all this possible. Patrick Moran, in voting Duncan MVP, explains, “Duncan has done so much for the sport. I feel like it is growing in his vision and it is a tireless job. I appreciate all he does!”
Graham King has played 769 (recorded) international racketlon matches! Has anyone played more? Or even got close?!
