A group of Rowayton residents organized the second annual Rowayton Racketlon for the benefit of Carver kids on Sunday, September 26th. The event happened at the Rowayton Community Center and nearly 50 Rowaytonites participated. The event this year also benefited the Rowayton Fire Department, a great friend of the Carver community — and Fire Department volunteers cooked for the event!

A total of $5,000 was raised, $2,500 for each organization.

The event was inspired by the sport of Racketlon in which competitors play a sequence of four racket sports back-to-back: ping pong, badminton, squash, and tennis. It originated in Finland and Sweden and was modeled on other combination sports like the triathlon and decathlon (which helped inspire the name Racketlon.)

For the Rowayton Racketlon, the four sports were changed to paddle tennis, pickleball, badminton, and ping pong to make it easier to play all four sports at the same location. Participants were divided into six teams of eight people each. Everyone played all four sports, one sport after the other, and the winning team was determined by the total number of games won across all of the events.

While you’re probably familiar with badminton and ping pong, you might not be a pickleball fanatic – yet. Pickleball is growing at a rate that is almost unprecedented in the history of American sports. Part of its popularity is that it is much easier to learn and play than tennis and other racket sports. Norwalk has been joining the bandwagon with courts at the Norwalk Senior Center, Nathan Hale Middle School, Ludlow Park and Roosevelt Elementary School and Norwalk Parks and Recreation recently announced plans to create four dedicated pickleball courts at Woodward Avenue Park by Spring 2022.

Paddle Tennis (technically Platform Tennis, to distinguish it from Paddle Ball) is a sport that was invented nearby, in Scarsdale, NY in 1928. It is played outdoors on raised courts with chicken wire fences that you can play the ball off of. While it has historically been more of a winter sport, it is also being played in the summertime more and more.

The Rowayton Racketlon was conceived as a way to bring together people who love playing these different sports, to have some fun competition and to give back to the overall community.

While these generous Rowayton Carver donors had a lot of fun that day, Carver students were the winners!

Thank You, Rowayton Racketlon!