I'm Eli, founder of BARDSI. I grew up in Spain — a country where padel isn't just a sport, it's a way of life. Born in Mexico and brought to Spain in the 1970s, padel found its spiritual home here. Courts everywhere. Friends made over post-game drinks. Families playing together on weekends. It was in Barcelona — the city where padel's rules were officially unified in 1997 — that I first truly understood what sport could be. Not just exercise. A reason to show up, connect and stay for everything after.

I wasn't playing. I was watching. And I was fascinated by what sport was doing to the people around me.

When I landed in Dublin I saw the same energy spreading across Europe. Then Singapore — and that's when it clicked. This wasn't a trend. It was a global movement. Padel everywhere, pickleball arriving from the US and exploding across Southeast Asia. The same idea in every city: sport is better when it's social.

If everyone around me was doing it, maybe it was time I tried too. So I stepped on court — and it changed everything. For the first time in a long time, exercise felt like fun.

BARDSI is my way of welcoming every woman into a movement I wish I'd joined sooner.

The name? Barcelona. Dublin. Singapore. The three cities that shaped this journey. And those three dots on our logo — they represent the three sports at the heart of our world: tennis, padel and pickleball. Three cities. Three sports. One movement.