Three years ago she never heard of Pickleball, now she is a national pickleball silver medalist.
Salmon Arm resident Linda Brown and her partner Pat Booth play friendly games of pickleball, a hybrid of badminton, tennis and table tennis, twice a week at the Salmon Arm recreation centre.
For Brown it is a welcomed chance to relax, catch up with friends and get a little exercise.
Brown admits she never really entered the sport for competitive reasons but decided to it might be fun to take part in a tournament. Their first taste of competitive pickleball came at the BC Seniors Games last year.
“We joined in because we thought it would be fun,” said Brown, adding they didn’t consider entering the Canadian National Pickleball Tournament until a friend told them how close it was.
“When we heard it was in Abbotsford we said why not? If it was somewhere further we never would have gone,” said Brown.
“We went for fun. We never expected to win anything.”
A group of five Salmon Arm pickleball players travelled to Abbotsford to compete and Brown and her partner Pat Booth brought back the silver medal.
“My husband was watching, and he was more nervous than we were,” says Brown. “We were just focused on playing.When we won, he was like ‘do you realize you just won a game in the Canadian National Pickleball Tournament?’”
Brown says it took a while for the win to sink in
“I mean, we were just playing like it was any other game,” says said. “Afterwards, we were having something to eat and someone was like, ‘you need to go to the podium.’
“We didn’t know what they meant. We didn’t realize we placed. We weren’t expecting it.”
Brown and her fellow Salmon Arm pickleballers have heard next year’s national tournament might be held in Calgary and, if that is the case, they are already planning to attend.
For now the group is back at the Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union Recreation Centre.
Brown says, they are at the centre as much as they can be, but the courts are not available as much as they would like.
“There are only three courts and we need more space as they are almost always full,” said Brown, noting pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in North America. She says the sport is rapidly growing in popularity in Salmon Arm and surrounding areas as well. A Blind Bay club has just been created due to rising demand, and already has 34 people signed up. Fifteen people have come forward in Sorrento, and a group is also being formed in Sicamous.
Brown would like to see an outdoor area made for sports like pickleball.
“Other teams play six days a week, naturally they are going to be better, they get more practice.”
Brown and other members of the Salmon Arm Pickleball club will be heading to other tournaments within the coming months.
“We are going to the Seniors Games in August in Burnaby.”