Simon Honan

speaker

39 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 15 Jun

Simon Honan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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Today with David McCullagh · Padel explosion: the racket sport that keeps on growing · 15 Jun 2026 podcast

Some might think so, however, I think what it does do is... Is it?

Is it?

Are you a failed tennis player?

Probably.

I think what's wonderful about the sport is probably the social element to it.

It's obviously played in pairs.

I think that's really, really appealing, as well as the fact that...

When you see where the clubs are taking place and developing, I think it's in existing facilities that are looking to try and add extra values to their membership.

So in this case, it's a rugby club who are looking to obviously bring another strand to their business line.

As well with the coffee truck that we have outside, we now have a paddle facility, so it's great.

Professionally, where is that at in Ireland?

growing.

So I think Ireland is in a position where they're seeing a huge upward trajectory in the participation of padel.

We've got a long way to go until that real high-end professionalism comes in.

However, the PFI are working very, very closely, I suppose, with the clubs and developing the game at a grassroots level.

And who knows, we might see now in the next number of years professional padel players on a full-time basis coming out of Ireland.

The likelihood of us seeing padel in the Olympics?

Yeah, it's in the Olympic schedule for 2032, so the guys obviously have something to work towards, certainly.

What, six years here now to get us a first Irish player playing paddle at the Olympics?

Yeah, I think that's a really exciting proposition.

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