France’s historic two-gold haul at the BWF World Championships 2026 may have surprised the badminton world, but for two of the key figures behind the achievement, it was simply the result of years of planning, patience and belief in the process.
Cyrille Gombrowicz, Technical Director of the French Badminton Federation (FFBaD), and singles coach Kestutis Navickas were among the architects of France’s unprecedented success last month.
Rather than viewing the titles as the product of a sudden breakthrough, both coaches pointed to the quality of the system that had been developed over many years.
“It’s a very long journey on the way to becoming world champion; there were a lot of good days and bad days,” Navickas said.
“What is most important is the trust and the belief in the process. We had good days and bad days, but on all the days we’ve had belief in the process, in our developmental focus that we set with the whole team, with long-term planning.”
For Navickas, the success was as much about developing individual players as it was about creating an environment capable of producing champions.
The coach has worked with Alex Lanier for almost five years, beginning when the Frenchman was just 15.
“We went through a lot together and I’m happy for him and I’m also happy for our work,” Navickas said.
Over those years, the focus was on bringing every aspect of Lanier’s development together rather than concentrating on one particular area.
“We tried to synchronise all the elements – technical, tactical, physical and mental,” he explained.
“It’s not that we focus too much on one thing. We focused on synchronising all the elements and definitely the mental part.”
Navickas also stressed the importance of daily habits, from the way players approach training and practice to how they develop and polish their skills.
For Gombrowicz, who joined FFBaD as a national coach in 1995, France’s rise has been the culmination of decades of work.
“It’s a very long process, because a long time ago France was a weak nation and we worked hard step by step and now we have two world titles on the same day,” he said.
Gombrowicz traces the foundation of the French system back to 1980, when the country established its national training centre.
Today, that structure has grown to three elite centres, nine regional centres and around 60 clubs, creating a broad pathway for player development.
France has increasingly established itself as a force in both individual and team competitions, although Gombrowicz believes there is still considerable ground to make up on the traditional badminton powers.
“China is a very strong country because they are present in all events. That’s not the case for France,” he said.
“Korea, Japan and also Indonesia and Malaysia have a lot of players at the top. For the French system we need to have more players in the top 30 in different events if we want to be a strong country in badminton.”
France’s double triumph may represent a breakthrough, but Gombrowicz sees it as only the beginning.
“It’s a first step now, and we have ambitions to go higher.”
