French badminton has never had it so good. Apart from the on-court exploits of French players, the hosting of mega-events in Paris, such as last year’s Olympic Games and the upcoming TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2025, the French Badminton Federation (FFBaD) won the BWF Participation Award for the FFBaD Junior Academy programme.
“With the junior academy, we prepare the future leaders of badminton,” said FFBaD President Frank Laurent while accepting the award at the BWF Member Association Awards in Xiamen in May 2025.
The programme is a training and support project for young people aged 13 to 17, aimed at increasing their engagement and volunteer roles. Young people apply to join a course as Technical Official, coach, or association volunteer. Once selected, candidates join a class of around 40 to follow online learning sessions, as well as two-three national gatherings at major badminton events. The objective is to provide skills and confidence to strengthen their commitment and enthusiasm for the sport. Each young person must structure a project within his or her club and then evolve through training. The programme has resulted in 90 per cent of regional leagues increasing their young volunteers with applications doubling in 2025.
FFBaD President Frank Laurent (centre) and Vice President Catherine Le Saint (right) with BWF President Khuning Patama Leeswadtrakul at the BWF MA Awards
“The Junior Academy aims to raise awareness among young people about getting involved in community life,” says Catherine Le Saint, Vice President of FFBaD, who in charge of the federation’s international relations and relations with school federations. “We give them a unique experience, meet badminton personalities, and offer them national recognition. We inform them of the training courses that might interest them. We can see that more than 30 per cent of the young people from the Junior Academy enrol in training courses to continue their commitment to badminton.
“It’s more than just about driving volunteers – it’s to give confidence to people to be more involved. Young participants need to have a mentor in the club. The idea is to strengthen the people who are running the badminton club. They help with the organisation, and events, and we can notice that many of them sign up for training in coaching, others join elected position with their clubs. So we want to help them to be more confident in themselves, to get more responsibilities in running the club.
Catherine Le Saint estimates that between 30 to 40 young people a year have come through the programme and are now actively involved with running their clubs. The academy – which is a programme and not a physical space – conducts the programme four times a year, with two physical meetings, one of which is at the Orleans Masters. With the academy having completed three years, around 100 young people have been trained and are now engaged in community badminton.
Young participants at the programme
“We’re careful about the quality of training courses,” Catherine Le Saint says. “The participants come from all over France. The idea is not to increase the number too much, but we want to be sure of the quality of the training sessions. We’re proud of the quality of training. More than 30 per cent of those working at the Junior Academy enrol in training courses and one young person was elected to a regional body.”
With the BWF World Championships coming up in Paris, FFBaD sent all the clubs an instructional booklet which could help them promote the event.
The award from BWF, Catherine Le Saint says, was an important mark of recognition for the federation.
“This reinforces the role we must play in the education of the youngest, on and off the pitch,” said Le Saint. “This prize will allow us to arouse interest from other federations, potential funders and institutional partners. It is also a major asset for communicating with our clubs and our members, and thus strengthening this system.”
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