Padel Confirmed as Medal Sport at European Games Istanbul 2027

On March 17, 2026, the International Padel Federation (FIP) and the European Olympic Committees (EOC) made it official: padel will be a full medal sport at the European Games Istanbul 2027, running from June 16 to 27, 2027.

The announcement was not a surprise to those who have been watching padel's institutional trajectory — but its symbolic weight is significant. Being a medal sport, rather than a demonstration event, places padel on the same stage as athletics, swimming, and gymnastics within the European Olympic movement.

Before Istanbul 2027, there was Krakow. In June 2023, padel made its European Games debut in Krakow, Poland — a moment that many in the sport described as a turning point.

The numbers told a compelling story. Twenty-three nations competed. More than 100 players took to the courts. And the stands were rarely empty — the competition drew over 20,000 spectators across the week.

Krakow proved that padel could deliver as a multi-sport Games event. It held its own on a crowded schedule alongside established Olympic sports. The atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the crowd response gave the FIP and EOC exactly the proof of concept they needed to bring it back — and to upgrade it to full medal status.

If Krakow 2023 was the opening move, 2026 is where padel starts playing multiple boards at once. Three separate major milestones are arriving within the same calendar year.

IOC recognition — which the FIP already has — is step one. But getting a sport into the Olympic Games is a longer process governed by 33 specific criteria. They range from anti-doping compliance and governance standards to the most critical metric of all: global reach.

There is no diplomatic way to put it: LA 2028 was never realistic. The window to add sports to the Los Angeles Olympic programme closed before padel had assembled the institutional groundwork the IOC requires.

The IOC reviews potential new sports years in advance of each Games. For LA 2028, those decisions were already made. Padel was not part of the conversation — not because of lack of interest, but because the sport's global infrastructure was still being built.

It is also worth understanding how the IOC's new "sport addition" framework works. Since the Paris 2024 reforms, host cities have more ability to propose additional sports — but only from a pre-approved list, and only for sports that demonstrate significant host-country popularity. Padel's strongest markets are in Europe and Latin America, not the United States.

Brisbane is where everything the FIP is building is aimed. The reasoning is straightforward: by 2032, the European Games in Istanbul (2027) and the Asian Games (2026) will have demonstrated padel's multi-continental appeal to an IOC that has been watching the sport's progression at every step.

Australia is also a favourable host in a different sense. The region does not have the same entrenched padel infrastructure as Spain or Argentina — which means the IOC cannot dismiss it as a "regional" sport. Growing presence in Asia Pacific by 2032 would matter enormously for that argument.

The IOC decision on which sports join the Brisbane 2032 programme is expected around 2028–2029. That gives padel roughly six years from today to close the gaps on the 33-criteria checklist — particularly the country thresholds for women's padel.

Olympic inclusion does not just mean a flag ceremony and a gold medal. For professional padel players, it would fundamentally reshape the economics of the sport.