Lionel Ollinger, the current member of the Higher Tennis Council and president of the Grand-Est league, looks back on his adventure in padel. The former President of the Lorraine League believed in padel from the beginning of his adventure within the FFT. This actor of French padel tells us.

When did you get involved in padel?

I got into padel when the FFT took over padel in the first half of 2014. When they told us to take care of it, I took this new sport head on. But until then, I didn't know the sport. When the development of padel became a mission of the FFT, I very quickly became interested in it by watching videos and playing.

Yet until 2016, there was no padel in Lorraine?

We had to wait until 2017 to get our two outdoor padel courts at the League center. We were ahead of all the other leagues. We had also put a padel court at the Tennis Club de Moulins Les Metz a year earlier, notably during the Waves Open, the international women's tennis tournament. But the court could not stay at the club. Moulins-les-Metz now has its own court.

When I was President of the Lorraine League, we didn't have padel. On the other hand, I have the chance to regularly go to Fuerteventura, an island in the Canaries, where padel is well and truly present. Normal, it's Spain!

And I was able to discover the atmosphere around padel. At first, it's not easy to play padel with such good players in Spain. But I quickly got a taste for this sport and padel came at a time in my life where it wasn't easy on a personal level.

What has the Lorraine League done to boost padel?

 At the time I could only put 2 padel courts. I had to take my pilgrim's staff because I was unfortunately quite alone in believing in padel.

With the two padel courts at the League Center. We can say that it was already a victory, we were almost 2 years ahead of today's policy implemented by the FFT with its subsidies.

In the Lorraine League, I remember that there were few people who knew how to play padel. So I gave of myself, literally and figuratively. I started playing, showing how you could play padel. I also introduced many tennis players to padel.

What can be said about today's policy implemented by the FFT?

Today, the FFT grants padel centers 2 padel courts. This is a very good thing for padel in France. We finally had a 2-year head start. What we need is to be able to cover them. It would be interesting to be able to extend this subsidy to those who have taken a head start…

But the Lorraine league has also and paradoxically perhaps lost 2 years. Because I think we could have done more in 2017 and 2018. Today, we are part of the Grand-Est league. This is a great opportunity, because we are supported by Alsace, which has been very active in padel for some time. This has given a boost to the entire region. The Alsatian clubs have evolved faster than the Lorraine clubs.

Lorraine is getting organized ...

The 4PADEL Club in Metz offers 3 indoor padel courts. This is a very good thing for the region that needed it. This structure has given Metz a real boost. With 3 indoor courts, it is reviving padel in the region. We signed an agreement last week with 4PADEL. The challenge is that tennis licensees can have privileged conditions to go and play padel and that we can develop padel.

We will also implement a padel training policy for the league clubs. There will be a calendar of padel tournaments soon. The clubs will also be helped when they want to invest in padel. There is a very good dynamic.

But be careful not to oppose the association to the commercial sector. We should not take the commercial sector as a competitor of the associative sector. The commercial sector brings a lot of comfort, high services and it clearly brings a boost to padel. This is very important. The cost may be higher, but the infrastructures are not the same.

The Moulins-les-Metz padel club is certainly the main provider of 4PADEL Metz. For the moment in any case, we see a real complementarity.

More personally, you are a padel player yourself.

Indeed, as explained earlier, I started playing padel the day the FFT included padel in its statutes. I was a semi-finalist in the regional phases of the French padel championships 2 years ago. I was even in the French top 500. I play padel at least once a week. I'm also going to a padel tournament in February.

You also play tennis, sometimes you have to make a choice?

Unfortunately, I do not have time to do everything. And even if I play tennis (current 15/1), I tend to go play padel instead. I'm really a fan of it and there is a really good, very motivating atmosphere.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

On the same subject

Tags