Andi Neugarten-Maio started 6 Love Sports after 50. We talked about padel, ambition, karaoke until 3 a.m., and the one thing that still beats her every time.

By Trish Ryan

I play padel. Some days well. Some days not. Mostly somewhere in the middle, which is where most of us live.

So when I sat down with Andi Neugarten-Maio, the self-appointed Chief Padel Addict and founder of 6 Love Sports, I figured we'd talk about the sport. Drills. Partners. Whether the bandeja is a real shot or something invented to humble me.

We got there. Sort of. Then we went somewhere better.

Here's the short version of Andi. More than 100 marathons. Three Ironmans. Grew up in South Africa. Moved to a new country with a young family. Went through a divorce. Was a single mom. Left banking. Started company after company. Married now for 22 years. And after 50, she built a business around a sport a lot of people still think is a typo for paddle.

She told me all of that like it was a grocery list.

For most of her career, Andi kept asking herself the same question. What am I supposed to be doing? She changed jobs, changed countries, changed paths, and the question came along every time.

It doesn't anymore. She told me she bounces out of bed thinking, "I get to do this."

What's different? Not the hustle. Not the hours. The reason.

"A big part of it is that I'm doing this because I want to," she said. Earlier in life, people change careers because they have to. There's rent. There are kids. There's food to put on the table. That pressure isn't driving her now. Choice is.

And the confidence is different too. She listens to her own voice more and to the chatter around her less. Curveballs still come. She just knows she can step back, reassess, and pivot without the floor falling out.

I think that's the part nobody tells you about this chapter. Starting something at 50 is not the same act as starting something at 30. Same verb. Completely different engine.

I asked her whether 6 Love Sports felt like starting over.

Nope. It felt like everything she'd already been finally showed up in the same room. The athlete. The businesswoman. The builder. The woman who can't help pulling other women together.

She didn't become someone new. She stopped splitting herself into parts.

This is where Andi got honest in a way I didn't expect.

She still wants to push. She still needs something meaningful to build. Sitting by a pool forever is not the plan and never will be.

But she also asks herself, "What am I chasing?" She said she wishes she could be more content. She's trying to balance the drive with a 22-year marriage she cares a lot about, and with all the other versions of herself that need room.

I liked that she didn't wrap it up neatly. Ambition after 50 isn't gone. It's just louder about its own questions.

When did Andi realize she wasn't just booking court time but building a place where women belong?

"From the beginning. I've always been a connector."

Then she told me about San Diego. She started a ladies' lunch for 24 women. Lunch, some networking, nothing fancy. It ran for 15 years. Real friendships came out of it.

Fifteen years. Of a lunch. That's not an event, that's an institution.

The way she sees it, it all starts with one question: "How can I help?"

She also said something I keep turning over. She never expected to make such good friends this late in life. New people bring new energy and new ways of seeing things. Travel does the same. Without that, we end up living in a very small bubble and forgetting there's anything outside it.

It doesn't have to be padel, she said. Hiking. Gardening. Any group of women doing anything. Make your world bigger.

Andi likes to be in control. She admitted it right away.

Padel doesn't allow that. It's doubles. Every point depends on another person. You have to trust her, support her, build her up when she misses. Andi called it humbling.

Anyone who has stood on a padel court with a partner knows exactly what she means. The sport is half shots, half relationship.

She also said that signing up for something, really signing up, brings back a kind of discipline a lot of women feel they've lost somewhere along the way. You train. You commit. You show up as your best self. Not for a boss. For you and the woman on your side of the net.

I asked what she'd say to a reader who has an idea brewing and worries she's missed her moment.

If she had waited for the perfect plan, Andi said, nothing would have happened. She started. She figured it out as she went. There's no timeline.

Then she said the line I've been repeating to anyone who will listen:

That's it. That's the whole thing. Nobody checks the replay. The point still counts.

Not long ago, Andi went to karaoke at a local restaurant. It didn't start until 11 at night. It went until three in the morning.

She'd forgotten how much she loves to sing.

What does she want younger women to see when they walk into a 6 Love Sports clinic and find women of every age playing, competing, and building businesses? Find your people. Make time for them. Love what you're doing. Don't take yourself too seriously. Smile more. Start over if you need to.

She was thinking of her own daughter when she said it.

As for what's next, she has a five-year plan and a ten-year plan and admits she isn't sure what either will bring. She'd love to live in Europe. She's already done the boat, the move to Miami, the trips to the Bahamas. Checked that box.

The thing pulling at her now is juniors. She wants more girls on the court. "The future is with the juniors."

I saved my favorite question for last. More than 100 marathons, three Ironmans, a business built after 50. What ordinary adult task still defeats her?

"The dishes!"

She grew up in South Africa with help at home. Then she moved to the United States and discovered the dishes and the laundry were just sitting there. Waiting. For her.

She's happy to cook. She will not be washing up. Even when she's hosting a ladies' league event, the charcuterie gets ordered and delivered that day.

Her rule: "Things that don't bring you joy and can be delegated, should be delegated!"

Over 100 marathons. Three Ironmans. Taken down, every single time, by a sink.

Find Andi and everything she's building at 6lovesports.com.
Follow 6lovesports on instagram.