It is one (great) thing to win a title; it is one (great) thing to be elected to a hall of fame. So, how great is it to collect both honors in the same season? That season being spring, late spring. Ed Thompson of Horseshoe Bay acquired the Daily Double.
He will be inducted (in August) into the Mexican Hall of Fame for the sport of padel, pronounced puh-dell. The United States Padel Association says, “Ed Thompson and Felipe Arnold introduced the sport to the U.S. in 1993 at the renowned Houstonian Hotel Club and Spa.”
Wikipedia maintains padel is most popular in Spain, Mexico, Italy and Argentina.
“Padel is something like racquetball and tennis,” Thompson told me. “I was asked to a tournament in ‘93 in Acapulco {the birthplace of the sport in 1969}, and they wanted me to go back to the U.S. and introduce the game.”
One reason Ed was selected was because he had played professional tennis, doing quite well in doubles.
More on Padel
The court is 25 percent shorter than tennis. Racquets (called “bats”) are smaller than those in tennis with no strings. Scoring is the same. Mainly doubles are played. There are glass-panel walls behind the players with metal-mesh panels on the sides. The ball must hit the floor before hitting a wall and returned while it is in the air. Serving is done underhand.
“I had a great time playing it {for eight years},” Ed said. “If you can play tennis, you can step over to this game and play it. It can get very fast; if you hit into the fence {the side walls}, you don’t know what the ball will do.”
“Easy to pick up, hard to master,” declared Melissa Beaudin of the Lake Travis Padel Club in Spicewood.
Thompson travels
“I headed up the USA organization,” and those teams, which totaled six players, competed in three world championships. No, there were no trophies brought home.
However, “I was part of the original effort to start the Tri-National Cup which included Canada and Mexico. President George H.W. Bush was chairman of the tournament.” (See photo above.)
Trophy time
Our main guest today is Ed Thompson, who didn’t win any on-court prizes in padel, but he is unbeatable as a bodybuilder. I hope you remember reading about him in the pre-COVID-19 years.
His latest triumph in the 70-and-over group (Ed is 75) came June 18 in Dallas. The Europa Games included opponents making up the Texas-Oklahoma-Nebraska region. Ed hasn’t lost in region competition since he returned to the sport in 2016 after a mere layoff of 47 years--yes, because he was involved in tennis and making a living.
He was third in the 70s’ bodybuilding Nationals in 2018.
