User:Sandsie

Racketlon is a racquet-sport cousin of the triathlon and decathlon. It combines the four most popular racquetsports in a single match (table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis).

By definition, the game must be built on the concept of a match involving the same two individuals (or pairs in doubles) playing each other in all four sports - with identically formatted sets being played in each sport. The player (or pair) who wins most rallies in total is the winner of the racketlon match.

The sets are played in the following order (from smaller to larger rackets): table tennis, badminton, squash, tennis. Other than short official rules, each of the four sports' matches are governed by their respective international rules.

History
The origins of racketlon can be traced back to Scandinavia in the mid Eighties, where four people representing each of the four racket federations got together in Finland to form a game they called mailapelit - i.e. "racket games". The first Finnish Championships were held in Helsinki in 1986 and the sport rapidly grew and slowly changed to the Racketlon format.

Growth
Billed as the world's fastest growing sport, in terms of numbers of official players, it has grown by 300% in the last three years, with almost 2000 ranked players from 48 countries. It's a fun, new enjoyable sport and a great workout.

World Championships and Tour
The first official world championship took place in November 2001, and the World Tour, which takes place in 15 countries, is now in its eighth year (2010). In 2010 the Singles World Champs is in Holland at the end of the year and the Teams in Vienna in September.

National Teams Champions