France eyes Olympic push as long rebuild starts to pay off

Feb 26 - French badminton is targeting future Olympic success with Christo Popov's World Tour Finals victory and a landmark European team crown marking what officials believe could be a potential turning point for the sport in the country.

Popov won the biggest title of his career in December while the French men's team stunned traditional powerhouses Denmark at last week's continental championships - breakthroughs the French Badminton Federation's technical director Cyrille Gombrowicz said were decades in the making.

Since badminton's introduction at the Olympics in 1992, the sport has been dominated by Asian countries, with Denmark the only European nation to feature in the top eight of the overall medal table and France yet to step on the podium.

But Gombrowicz believes they now have a proper launchpad with rising talents including Popov, Alex Lanier and the mixed doubles pair of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue who captured the nation's first-ever Super 1000 title in Indonesia last year.

"The next Olympic cycle after the 2028 Los Angeles Games may be the best period for French players," Gombrowicz told Reuters.

"Step by step, our goal is to enter the group of the world's top eight badminton nations."

'CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE'

France's badminton resurgence has been catalysed by a significant expansion of its talent base, with registered players growing from 3,000 in the late 1970s to about 250,000 today.

"Over a long period of time, we had to develop a culture of performance," Gombrowicz said.

"That was a challenge, but we built it. One indicator of this growth is the number of clubs. Today, we have more than 2,000. In the beginning there were maybe around 100."

Mass participation gradually led to the establishment of a national training centre in 1990 with regional centres following suit and a few select clubs tagged as high-performance hubs.

Former men's world number one Peter Gade, who served as France's national coach between 2015 and 2018, pointed to a shift in mentality.

"We wanted to move away from short-term thinking and start thinking about becoming the best in Europe, or even one of the best in the world," the Dane said.

"That was a big part of our main message: to create belief among players, coaches, and within the system."

PROFESSIONAL APPROACH

Former French women's singles player Pi Hongyan noted the role of international coaches in shaping the national programme.

"Now, young players say they want to be world champions or Olympic champions," said Chinese-born Hongyan, who coaches young players in Marseille after retiring in 2012.

"That changes how hard they work. They train four or five times a week, sometimes every day."

Officials and analysts say that sustaining national momentum after the 2024 Paris Olympics and enhancing women's badminton will be critical in the coming years.

"Government funding (for sport), not only in France but in most countries, depends mainly on medals at the Olympic Games and world championships," said Fernando Rivas, former coach of Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin and a senior figure in France's coaching setup from 2022 to 2025.

"France must balance investment carefully, especially in women's singles, and be smart about when and how to allocate resources to young talents."

Gade stressed the importance of the current player generation as role models for future talent.

"The next generation needs to be built now because it takes many years," he said. "France is fortunate to have such a strong generation right now and these players must serve as role models for the next." REUTERS