RACKETLON – Take table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis, put them together and you get racketlon. Best French specialist in the discipline and 2024 world vice-champion, Sylvain Ternon talks to us about his sport at the dawn of the world circuit finals which begin this Friday.
Hello Sylvain, how are you? How is your form before the finals?
Physically, I’m fine, I’m in full preparation for the Masters this weekend. Group matches Friday and a half + final Saturday. This is a first, the world circuit has organized a “Race” over 12 months, and the first eight will be at the Masters. Namely that they are trying a small modification, since the matches in the 4 disciplines are traditionally 21 winning points, but during the group matches, they will be 11 winning points, before returning to the traditional format in the final stages. Personally, I advocate for games with less than 21 points.
Something like 15 or 16 point games?
I would like 15 points to be yes, but I don’t have a real argument for that, it’s more my feeling. But it’s good to try anyway. Knowing that a game of racketeon, this can be dispatched in 30 – 40 minutes, but if the matches are close, it can last up to two hours, so it may be a good idea.
How is the world circuit organized?
It’s not really any different from other racquet sports, with a World Championship and four levels of tournament competition. But the real specificity – which I find a bit stupid – is that the ranking is not smoothed over 12, but 24 months, which means that some people can maintain a good ranking without playing. This does not encourage playing, because you can find yourself seeded for the Worlds without playing for more than a year.
Will the finals be broadcast?
Normally, they will be broadcast on Facebook (the finals take place in Switzerland, Editor’s note). Only Austria is making a real effort on distribution. We had great broadcasting during the World Championships, with top commentators on the last matches. But I think we will be satisfied with a fixed camera behind the main courts. Normally, it will be on the Facebook of the international federation.
You were vice-world champion for the first time this summer. What did you miss for the title?
I lost to Luke Griffith (star of the discipline and now triple world champion, Editor’s note), and what I missed was mainly in squash. There are several elements, we may never have the answers, but I took 21-9 in squash, a score that is consistent with our respective levels, but he does not necessarily excel in squash. What I’m missing is a level of ranking in squash, just to be able to score 15 points instead of 9. And the two times I played it, if I had scored 15 points instead of 9 , I won the match.
And then in terms of competition, him and his brother, I’m the only one who can hold them together, I’ve already beaten his brother (Leon, twice vice-world champion, editor’s note), he beat me too, but other players, who could beat me, would have no chance against the brothers Griffith. Because I am able to beat them on my weak point (table tennis, which is obviously not their strong point) and also beat them on their strong point (Badminton), it’s a question of profile , I think they are objectively better racketeers than me, but I have an annoying profile for them.
Exactly, how can we progress in this particular discipline?
Without having really abandoned other sports, I have been focusing very heavily on squash during my training since September. Without going into detail about the time allocated to each discipline, I do a lot more squash today. And this year, I’m able to play with people who are stronger than me in this discipline, which helps me progress.
A particularity is that the Worlds take place in August, and with the high heat, the balls go excessively fast. So, in agreement with my coaches, we took balls that go fast even in winter. But I’m not sure what it’s going to be like.
How to find a balance between the four disciplines?
There is a balance to find, but I also have to accept that I am less strong in badminton than I was a few years ago (Sylvain Ternon is a former French number 3 in badminton, Editor’s note) to progress in other disciplines. And unfortunately, all the training sequences remain somewhat independent. My squash coach doesn’t know my ping coach, and vice versa. It’s up to me to manage my training, my recovery phases, my areas of work.
That would be great, but today, racketeering isn’t developed enough, and I don’t have enough support to put that in place. There is not a very strong link between the activities.
Exactly, how does discipline develop? For example, the Worlds this year took place during the Olympic Games…
It’s a pretty tricky question (laughs). There are different desires to develop racketeering at the national or international level. At the national level, countries like France or Austria are really making an effort to develop competitions in their respective countries, or even in terms of youth competitions, to find coaches. Afterwards, I don’t have the ins and outs of all the countries, but at the international level, I don’t see much done by other countries, I don’t see young people arriving in the discipline. Great Britain, which nevertheless has the world champion, no longer has tournaments at international level.
And then I find that at the level of the international racketeering federation, it is even worse. Nothing is done to encourage players to come to racketelon or to stay there. There is little or no prize money on tournaments, it costs a lot of money, everything is at our expense, there is no high-level athlete status that means we are helped in one way or another. Often, high-level players don’t stay long, because we wonder the benefit of persevering in a sport with little recognition, communication, media coverage.
There are some positive points, for example, I have done a lot of interviews recently, but it remains at the national level, because Racketlon France has made a lot of effort. But at the international level, it is a disaster. We had broadcasts on Facebook filmed by a telephone for example. All these things make international racketeering dangerous for me. And then the day I stop racketeering, given the age of the two brothers (21 and 24) I am afraid that they will monopolize all the titles without sharing anything for years, personally, I do not believe that this is a good thing for the discipline. The bosses of the international federation are very friendly, but I question their skills to develop this sport a little, that’s what worries me for the future.
In financial terms, how are you doing?
I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and all the things I want to do, I put them off, because I will have time to do them when I stop my career. All the money I have goes into the discipline, I eat, I sleep and I train in racketeering. These are choices that have a limited duration, personal choices. All the money I could put into leisure goes into training, equipment, recovery, etc.
So, you already know that your career will last a limited time…
I’m already 35 years old, and the main thing that drives me is the title of racketeon world champion, it’s not the records. It’s complicated, because I have two super strong rivals, who also spend their time training together. I was very disappointed after the Worlds, but I had to find other reasons for satisfaction. For example, I had a great tournament last weekend in Graz with a nice prize money, €2,000. For the finals, it is €1,200. These are not amounts that will cover training costs, but they are quite nice sources of motivation and satisfaction. Because if it’s just the title of world champion, I risk being disappointed.
When you started racketeering, did you see yourself with a long-term future in the discipline?
Like many, I was too optimistic about my real level when I started. I watched the best in the world play and I said to myself “I must not be that far away”. It turns out that shortly after, I had the opportunity to face the world No. 2 at the time, and I quickly saw that it would take a few years of training (laughs). But basically, I didn’t have a real objective, because I knew very little about squash and ping. And when you start from very low, you progress very quickly.
And beyond racketeering, progressing in these two disciplines made me want to persevere. And inevitably, the good results arrived regularly, not necessarily in the ranking, because it is not always representative. My reference victory, as I told you, it was against Leon Griffith in 2022, who was world number 1 at the time, From there, I knew that I could beat anyone and so the machine was launched for slightly more presumptuous objectives.
I imagine that all racket players start first with a particular racket sport, not directly with this discipline…
That’s a lot, but we realize that the brothers Griffith for example, even if they are bad specialists, they played all four sports when they were young. Luke Griffith actually performed in badminton before returning to the four disciplines, so he never had a weak sport, unlike me who was “weak” in ping and squash. But for all players, it’s as you say.
How does the French federation succeed in attracting people to the discipline?
The two large pillars are Mandrel Mouchet et Josselin Gadéthe president of the federation. At the beginning, Mandrel mapped France, looking for all the places where the infrastructure existed to possibly play racketeering. Afterwards, they tried to develop the tournament offering as much as possible, so that as many people as possible could have access to them. And when you look at the map, it’s denser than any country in the world.
Once there were quite a few players, they started creating clubs, there are six now. Clubs are now able to recruit players, and there are other clubs expected to be created soon. And for two years, we have been affiliated with the FF Badminton as an associated discipline, which allows us to have certain supports, such as a preparation course for the World Championships financed by the FF Badminton.
We even thought for a moment that we would have high-level sports status, that would have been great. But a priori you will have to be patient. I probably won’t be an athlete anymore by then. It’s sure that it’s hard to train daily alongside professional life, to organize everything yourself and to have the constraints of high-level athletes that we all know. The lack of recognition is sometimes frustrating, but I remain focused on the passion, the love of competition and the goals to come. Racketeon is today a minor sport, we must be aware of it, accept it and continue to move forward despite everything.
