24-hour pickleball tournament sees more than 200 players fundraising for lung health

More than 200 pickleball players wrapped up a 24-hour long tournament for charity this weekend.

It’s the end of a long stretch for more than 200 avid pickleball players, some of whom slept overnight at an Edmonton sports centre to complete a 24-hour tournament for charity.

Alberta Lung hosted what it believes is Canada first-ever round-the-clock pickleball tourney from 7 p.m. on Friday to 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The newly opened Edmonton Sports Centre stepped up to host the games after the non-profit was forced to postpone when its initial facility, Raise Athletics, suddenly closed.

Alberta Lung has been holding pickleball tournaments for three years, but this was the first year that the Feisty Pickles 24-Hour Pickleball Challenge came to fruition.

“It is insane … every hour two players turn over, and we are continuously playing,” Alberta Lung CEO Leigh Allard said on Saturday afternoon, adding that not everybody is playing at once, but more than 200 people turned out to rotate in and out of teams.

“It’s been incredible. Teams have slept here at the facility.”

Allard credits much of the event’s success to the facility that made it possible, and hopes to expand the fundraiser in years to come.

“We’ve got an amazing partner here, and we can do even more,” she said.

The tournament is fundraising for a project called “Breathing Space,” a home away from home for people with lung health issues who need a place to recover or wait for lung transplants.

So far the campaign has raised $96,650 of its $100,000 goal. Fundraising ends on Feb. 1.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall