Sports, by its very nature when played at a professional level is extremely demanding to the body and the mind. It’s the ultimate test of human limits, a measure of how far the boundaries can be pushed to achieve a favourable result. Athletes spend decades to perfect their craft of mastering a sport, but what if winning at one sport was not enough? What if you were required to excel at FOUR different sports one after another?

Racketlon is a unique format where a participant plays against an opponent at table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis one after another (in that order) where each sport is played for 21 points. The winner of a Racketlon match is the participant that scores the maximum points across all four games. Easier said than done right?

In this exclusive interview with SPOGO, Mr. Duncan Stahl, President of Federation of International Racketlon speaks about being introduced to this unique format, his strengths and weaknesses, objectives and vision for Racketlon, overcoming challenges, it’s potential in India and future goals.

Q 1) When were you first introduced to Racketlon? What drew you into this unique sporting format and did you always have an affinity towards racket sports?

I first got introduced to it in 2009. There was a teammate of mine in the squash team when I was playing in London. He had heard about a tournament in London and we decided to go along and play in it. As far as what drew me towards it, I played a lot of tennis since I was a child and also played a little squash so I played two of the four sports and I always enjoyed playing different sports, so the fact there were four different sports attracted me even though when I went for my first tournament, I had not played competitive table tennis or badminton. It's  still the idea of playing different sports that attracted me and that's what first got me into it and it's quite addictive, where, in order to improve you have to play and practise the sports you haven't played so much. I've played lots and lots of tennis and squash, what was most motivating was when I started playing new sports like badminton and table tennis was how quickly I improved in those sports. With every hour of training, I knew I was getting better and more familiar with the sports and that motivates you because you can see how quickly you have improved. One of the main motivating factors behind Racketlon is when you play tournaments against other players, you quickly get motivated to make your weaker sports better, which is usually the reason you often get beaten heavily against good players at Racketlon tournaments. That was the major motivating factor behind how I started.

Q 2) As 3x British Racketlon champion, which achievement stands out as your most memorable and why? Out of the four sports, which ones would you consider as your strengths and weaknesses?

On the national front in the United Kingdom, winning three British titles are my most memorable achievements. On an international level, winning the World Cup team for the Elite Teams with Great Britain in 2019. I think I played for the Great Britain or England team for almost 10 years, every World Championship, from 2010 onwards. We slowly as a team got better and better over the years and then in 2018, we lost a very close final against Austria. Next year, we came back to Germany in 2019 and managed to win the first title when Great Britain won the World Cup so that was definitely a stand out moment at international level for sure. I have played squash for the longest amongst the other sports so I would say I'm probably most consistent at squash but I've trained myself at other sports for long enough now and I feel like I can get to a good level at all four of the other sports but maybe less consistent in the ones I played least of. I would say I'm able to play all sports at a good level across all four sports probably to a similar level but I'll be more inconsistent at some of the other sports.

Q 3) As President of International Racketlon, tell us more about your vision and objectives for Racketlon? How do you plan to achieve them?

I'd say that as far as what the objective is concerned, I think it's really all based around increasing participation in the sport, to get more people to play in the sport to get more people aware of what Racketlon is, that essentially is the ultimate goal. When all this is achieved,  greater and official recognition of this sport at international level will come naturally. As far as what that growth looks like, I think I've always wanted to increase the world tour which the FIR promotes every year, so we try to bring in two brand new tournaments every year in a new city or venue or ideally in a new country and we keep that growing. We currently have about 37 national member countries. We have set ourselves a target to try and bring two new member countries into the FIR every year and I would like to try and keep doing that every year until we get to more countries and with more countries, we have more tournaments and with that we have greater possibility to increase participation.

As far as grassroots and building up participation is concerned, I think the junior program which we have launched this year is going to play a very important role. We will try to bring Racketlon into schools, clubs and use it in different formats of the sport to make it more accessible to the juniors. That will play a very important role and the use of social media has been a key part of what we have been doing for the last few years just to increase the awareness of Racketlon, particularly with the existing racket sports communities within badminton, table tennis and squash communities, so that the players within those four sports get to know about the Racketlon. One way we are trying to break into those communities is through an ambassador program where we are approaching well known figures within those four sports, whether they are current professionals or former professionals who have got high profile in those sports, for them to become ambassadors of racketlon to promote the game.

Q 4) What are some of the challenges that you have faced as President of International Racketlon? How did you overcome them?

We have about 37 member countries. I’d say the challenge is that all the different countries are in different stages of development. Some are very well established and have been going on for a number of  years and have a very good structure. They have national tours and things like that. Some are very new or underdeveloped, sometimes because they have a lack of venues and sometimes because they are quite new to Racketion. With all the countries operating at different stages, they all have separate needs. The more developed countries want to put up big events and tours with a lot of media coverage. Meanwhile, countries that are new and just starting to establish themselves have very different needs from us as an international federation. Having to deal with those different countries in different ways has been a challenge. I’ve been able to offer some good support anyway but it’s something I want to increase over the years and look into how we can go about supporting our member countries and their different needs whether that is helping them from an early stage or supporting them once they have become part of the world tour. I do think we are getting better and better at that.

Obviously, another thing that has been a big challenge in the last two years is the Covid pandemic. That has created huge problems across the world in all kinds of spots. The main problem on the local level is that people at the household stage have not been able to train or keep playing their sport. On a more general level, it has basically wiped out all our world tours in the last 18 months, which is the main centerpiece of the sport as an international federation. Trying to keep people motivated and trying to keep them together and engaged and interested in Racketion whilst not being able to host any tournaments has been a big challenge. That is something we've worked at very hard. Particularly, using social media to keep the community together. I think we've done quite a good job and we are hoping now that if tournaments are beginning to restart in the last quarter of this year, then we will hopefully see the existing community come back to tournaments. Hopefully some of the work we have done to grow the sport while there haven't been any tournaments should help us find new players as well.

Q 5) Do you believe India has the potential to become a major force in Racketlon? If yes, what needs to be done to work towards it?

The short answer to that is yes absolutely. There is huge potential in India for Rocketlion for a number of different reasons. I think the four sports of Racketion in different ways all have some sort of history in India. In some countries certain sports are very underdeveloped, but in India all four sports have got a good structure already existing there. The number of clubs that offer facilities for all four sports in Indias as already there.

On a trip I took to India last year I was amazed by how many clubs there are in Mumbai alone, which provide excellent facilities for all four sports. I think all the sports are well established and the clubs are all well established and of course the size of India is equivalent to that of the whole of Europe in a way.

I think there is no reason why the Racketion center in India would not grow to be as big as it is here in Europe, if we were to grow the talent at a regional level in every state. I would say that it will take a lot of time and the national body in India has done a very good job already. They have established a good set of good new players who are all performing very well. I think what will help their development in particular is to continue to expose them to world level tournaments, and so having their players travel to Europe to participate in the tournament would be important but we also want to try to establish at least two world tour tournaments in India every year and for European players to come and play in India.

This would not only allow India to play against the world’s best players but it will also allow them to get world ranking points, which would push their ranking up. That would motivate them to be better. I think the infrastructure is already there in some sense and once the Covid restrictions have eased in India, I think there is every potential for the sport to grow very quickly.

Q 6) As FIR President, what are your future goals and aspirations? How do you plan to achieve them?

On a short to mid-term level we want to continue expanding the world tour to at least 2 tournaments a year. We want to bring in 2 new member countries every year and to keep growing Racketion into different areas. I'd like to try and get to a point where within a few years we have 25-30% of the world tour taking place outside of Europe.

We want to develop things we've already started in North America and Asia to take world tours outside of Europe so players in those areas can feel part of the world wide scene and get world ranking points in their local areas. I think that that is very important. The junior programme is very important that we have already started and we've already got some ambitious plans to bring Racketion into schools and clubs for kids and students at a much younger age that are just starting to learn the sports and connect it to our junior programme coming into the post-covid world.

There is a role for Racketion as far as the health and wellness of people is concerned. Health is becoming increasingly important to people and more of a priority to them. Racketon as a multisport, both for kids and adults can definitely play a role in people’s mental and physical health by keeping sport interesting. Four different sports keep people motivated and interested. Our world wide community is very strong and I think racketion has a very interesting role in that area. It is really all about increased participation, getting more people to play, getting more people aware of Racketion and of course the ultimate goal is official recognition, which will come soon after that.