During the pandemic, Tyson Apostol, a gregarious former contestant on multiple seasons of the hit CBS show "Survivor,” made a well-timed career pivot. He took a step back from reality TV and went all in on pickleball.
"I tried it, and I fell in love with it,” said Apostol.
First invented in the 1960s, pickleball — a paddle sport often described as a hybrid of tennis, ping pong, and badminton — is soaring in popularity. Across the U.S., new pickleball courts are popping up at parks, schools, homeowner associations, condominiums, Hollywood mansions, themed restaurants and sports clubs, as communities scramble to meet the surging demand. In 2020, roughly 4.2 million people played pickleball, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) — up 21 percent from the year before.