Pickleball eye injuries hit 1,262 cases in 2024 alone, yet players keep showing up without protective eyewear like it’s optional. The sport attracts older folks seeking “safe” exercise, then smacks them with plastic balls flying 60 mph straight at their faces. No mandates exist for eye protection, not even basic guidelines from USA Pickleball. Treatment costs reached half a billion dollars last year while everyone pretends this is fine. The numbers tell a different story.

While pickleball has exploded into America’s fastest-growing sport, it’s also smashing eyeballs at an alarming rate. The numbers are brutal: 3,112 ocular injuries since 2005, with 1,262 happening in 2024 alone. That’s a 405-case annual jump since 2021. Twenty million Americans are playing this sport, and apparently, none of them think their eyes are worth protecting.

The typical victim? A 54-year-old who probably thought pickleball was the safe alternative to tennis. Turns out, getting drilled in the face by a plastic ball traveling 60 mph from 14 feet away isn’t exactly gentle. Seventy percent of injuries happen to players over 50 — the same demographic that joined for “low-impact exercise.” The irony writes itself.

Middle-aged players seeking gentle exercise are taking 60-mph balls to the face instead.

Direct hits from the ball cause 43% of injuries. Falls account for another 28%. Getting whacked by someone’s paddle? That’s 12%. The rest involves different creative ways people manage to damage their eyes while holding what’s fundamentally an oversized ping-pong paddle. Most injuries are periocular lacerations and corneal abrasions — painful, sure, but recoverable. The unlucky ones get retinal detachments, globe trauma, or orbital fractures. Some patients develop hyphema, blood pooling in the front chamber of the eye that can permanently damage vision. Three percent might sound small until it’s your eyeball.

Here’s the kicker: eye protection isn’t mandated anywhere. Not in casual play, not in professional matches. Nothing. The sport that markets itself to retirees as safe exercise has zero requirements for the most basic safety equipment. USA Pickleball hasn’t established any standardized eye protection guidelines despite mounting evidence of the crisis. Meanwhile, treatment costs hit between $250 and $500 million in 2023 alone.

The explosion started in 2020 — a 300% player increase that brought hordes of casual, inexperienced players with lower fitness levels onto courts. Modern paddles make the ball fly faster than ever. Older players have reduced muscle mass, worse balance, and slower reflexes. It’s a perfect storm of factors, and eyeballs are paying the price.

Ophthalmologists are practically begging people to wear protection. They’re publishing studies, issuing warnings, probably screaming into the void. But pickleball players keep showing up to courts with their eyes completely exposed, ready to become another statistic in America’s strangest sports injury epidemic.