Quidditch for humans - 10th June 2022

Harry Potter's favourite sport, quidditch, is now being played in about 40 countries.

The players might not be able to fly on broomsticks, but they remain true to the text, by running with them. Tiphaine Pasquereau, a member of the Olympians Paris team, explains that the broomstick makes it a bit more challenging.

Tiphaine Pasquereau: "It's not just to say we do like Harry Potter, we pretend to fly or whatever. It really has a role because it serves as a handicap. We have to run while keeping it between our legs, so it forces us to handle the balls often with one hand. They are volleyballs, so they are quite big in diameter, so it is not necessarily easy."

Quidditch teams try to remain independent of Harry Potter fandom. However, they still use a lot of the original language from the story like; swaffle, sweep and Golden Snitch.

Given that the Golden Snitch is a flying gold ball, teams must make some changes. This role is played by a neutral player, who's dressed in yellow with a tennis ball in a sock fixed to their shorts.

The sport allows mixed gendered teams and includes skills from several sports. Paul Bonnet is proud of this.

Paul Bonnet:"We often find players who have done different sports before: rugby, basketball, volleyball, football. And in fact, everyone manages to fit in because there's huge diversity in the game, in what we have to do, in our roles. And so, everyone finds their place a little bit. It mixes several sports and obviously we have a good diversity of people, different physiques."

Quidditch federations compete regularly in international matches. They would like to be recognised like other sports. But many still think of the game as a Harry Potter fan club. Tess Harmand would like this to change.

Tess Harmand: "It's our goal as a federation to show that we really are a serious sport, that we organise competitions like any other sport, and that we put the same intensity, the same passion as any other individual or team sport. But there are still people who are more attracted to the really geeky side, which is around the universe and everything."