Anna 
Pickleball, once a niche sport, is now taking Hong Kong by storm and attracting players of all ages. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Michael Phelps are fans.
For more than a year, Ryan Lam Chun-hei, 28, practiced pickleball late at night on empty badminton courts under a bridge in Kwai Fong. The conditions were challenging, with little light making it hard to see the ball.
“It’s not easy being an athlete in Hong Kong, especially in an emerging sport,” Lam says.
Despite these challenges, Lam and his teammate Wong Hong-kit, 26, triumphed at the Hong Kong leg of the 2024 World Pickleball Championship series. The event took place late last year at the Discovery Bay Recreation Club. Lam expressed his joy after winning a spot at the global finals in Vietnam later this month.
Pickleball gained traction during the pandemic, when Hollywood stars like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Emma Watson, as well as athletes like Serena Williams and Michael Phelps, started playing. This helped transform the sport, once considered a “grandma’s game,” into a global trend.
The sport was invented in 1965 by Washington state congressman Joel Pritchard, along with his friends Bill Bell and Barney McCallum. They were trying to play badminton but couldn’t find racquets, so they used ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball instead of a shuttlecock.
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