Sioux Falls Mom Attempting to Set New Pickleball Playing Record

A Sioux Falls mother of 4 is aiming to break a record in the Guinness Book of World Records this weekend.

39-year-old Geneva Olson of Sioux Falls is part of a four-person team that has its sights set on breaking the record for continuous pickleball playing.

Olson's pickleball team, called the "Pickle Breakers," will be vying to set a new world record scheduled to take place on Saturday (April 12) in Carrollton, Texas.

Can This Pickle Breaker Set A New Pickleball Record?

Pigeon 605 (with permission)

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As Pigeon 605 reports, the current pickleball playing record stands at 34 hours and 5 minutes.

On Saturday, Olson and her team plan on doing their best to take that record down.

What is pickleball?

It's actually a paddleball sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. The game is played on a smaller court with a perforated plastic ball and paddles.

The game of pickleball is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing sports in the country.

According to the Pigeon 605 article, there is a particular set of ground rules for Guinness World Record consideration that must be followed. In the case of Olson and her team, they must keep the same partner for all 36 hours. Teams are allowed a five-minute break every hour. It is possible to sandbag those breaks and save them up if everyone on the team is doing okay.

In theory, a team could play for three consecutive hours, if they choose, then take a 15-minute break, but the breaks can happen only on the hour. Breaking up an hour with a short break is not permitted.

Pickleball players can typically switch sides of the court after each game; however, for this weekend's Guinness event, players can only switch sides after they've taken a break.

Olson told Pigeon 605, she's anticipating the mental side of the competition to be her teams biggest challenge on Saturday. "They are going to have to work at staying engaged and not getting too bored."

Her team has developed a number of different ideas and strategies they plan to employ during the record-breaking competition.

Best of luck to Geneva and her team as they attempt to set the new world record this weekend.

And make sure to check out what originally got Olson on the pickleball court and catch her entire pickleball-playing backstory in the Pigeon 605 article.

Source: Pigeon 605