The Professional Pickleball Association (USA) has broken the record for most participants in a pickleball exhibition match with 264 people taking part on 5 November.
Pickleball is a paddle sport where two or four players hit a ball over a net and is best described as a mix of table tennis/ping pong and actual full-court tennis.
The attempt took place just before the start of the 2023 USA Pickleball National Championships in Dallas, Texas.
The sport has been a staple in social activity for decades in retirement communities in Florida and Arizona.
However, in the past several years, the sport has seen a push to frame it for younger audiences.
This record was attempted to draw attention to and highlight the sport.
The 12-hour exhibition match took place at Brookhaven Country Club in Texas between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
For this attempt, participants were required to play pickleball in 10-minute intervals before swapping out.
To add a bit of competitive spirit to the record-breaking event, the exhibition match was held between two teams.
These teams were called Team Ruby Red and Team Lemon, with both wearing appropriately coloured T-shirts.
PPA Tour partner Deep Eddy Vodka was instrumental in bringing this to life and creating fun vibes for all on Pickleball Boulevard.
There was a lot of pre-planning involved in recruiting participants and the PPA were thankful to the “incredibly passionate” pickleball community who were thrilled to participate.
Pickleball World No. 1s Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters also took part in the fun!
Team Ruby Red ended up beating Team Lemon by a narrow margin – 657 points to 636 points.
“Technically, Nationals didn’t start until Monday, so I was worried that nobody was going to show up, and I’d have to pull in our staff to play, but we had waitlist upon waitlist to participate. People were asking every time they walked by me, ‘Can I jump in? How do I sign up?’ If we had more time and more bandwidth, I bet we could have played for a whole 24 hours with the amount of people that wanted to jump in for this event.” - Brook Thygerson, PPA Tour Point Person
After the evidence was reviewed by Official Adjudicator Michael Empric, the certificate was awarded, sparking cheers from the crowd.
The Professional Pickleball Association joined forces with Deep Eddy Vodka to celebrate this remarkable achievement.
Congratulations to the Professional Pickleball Association and participants on their achievement!
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