Padel takes center stage at UN event on women in sport

Women’s padel did not just get a photo op in Geneva. It got a seat at the table. During the 62nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Qatar Sports Investments, Premier Padel and the International Padel Federation took the women’s game into a high-level UN forum built around one question: how sport moves from words to deeds for women and girls.

The setting carried weight. The event was hosted by the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN Office in Geneva with Qatar Sports Investments and Qatar Foundation, and it included a photography exhibition at the Palais des Nations that put female Premier Padel players in front of diplomats and international decision-makers. The message was bigger than promotion. Premier Padel said the gathering advanced UN Human Rights Council Resolution 59/17 on better participation, leadership, safety and empowerment for women and girls through sport.

The speaker list matched the ambition. Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Andreas Zagklis and Maria Teixidor were all on the platform, giving the event both political and sporting credibility. Sheikha Hind said empowering women and girls through sport means going “beyond parity.” Al-Khelaifi said every girl should have the opportunity to participate in sport. That is the line that matters most here: not simply more visibility, but more access and a firmer route to power inside sport.

For Premier Padel, the event was also a blunt admission of where the women’s tour stands today. The women’s game has grown sharply in professionalism, globalisation and exposure compared with only a few years ago, but economic sustainability and independence are still not there. That is where the next battle lies: prize money, governance, media exposure and the everyday conditions that determine whether elite players can build real careers.

The Geneva appearance sits inside a broader push. In March 2025, Premier Padel and the International Padel Players Association agreed to keep women’s draw sizes unchanged while increasing women’s prize money for P2 tournaments by €10,000 per tournament, with the IPPA also covering qualification hotel costs for women players from the Santiago P1 through the end of the 2025 season. In December 2025, Premier Padel and FIP said the 2026 tour would feature 26 tournaments across 18 countries, with nearly 75 percent indoors. That is what institutional growth looks like when it starts to harden into a calendar.

There is also a wider strategic play behind it. Premier Padel and Hexagon Cup announced a partnership in February 2025 to support men’s, women’s and youth padel, alongside FIP’s Olympic pathway project. Geneva made the point in public: women’s padel is no longer being treated as a side story. It is being positioned as part of a global sports agenda.