Top junior Alex Lanier on the rise of French badminton: "Now we want to get a medal or win the tournament"
Ahead of this week's senior European Mixed Team Championships on home soil, junior world number one Lanier says the mindset of French players is changing from making up the numbers to challenging for silverware.
Badminton
Think of France and badminton is probably not the first sport that springs to mind.
But a band of youngsters is hoping to change that in a country where team sports like football, basketball and handball dominate, and where attention in individual sports tends to fall on certain athletes such as judo star Teddy Riner.
Leading the way in the senior ranks are Toma Junior Popov, Christo Popov and Arnaud Merklé with Alex Lanier set to join them.
Lanier, 18, is the number one junior men's singles player in the world and joins his senior colleagues at this week's European Mixed Team Championships 2023 (14–18 February) in Aire-sur-la-Lys in northern France.
The hosts are bidding to go one better than two years ago in Vantaa, Finland where they lost in the final to Denmark.
Speaking exclusively to Olympics.com at last year's World Junior Championships, he said of French players, "Ten years ago we were just like 'We'll play one or two rounds,' and now it's more like 'We want to get a medal or win the tournament.'
"We changed this mindset – we're not really just (watching) the Asian players, but beating them. It was a big change for France."
The next generation of French badminton stars
While the Popov brothers and Merklé have made their marks at senior level, Lanier is adamant that they are not his "inspirations" having trained with them.
"They're older than me, but they are not too far off [my age]," he explained. "Training together meant it was a bit like I wanted to beat them and they don't want to lose against me."
The quartet's close relationship has made home fans believe they can make an impact at Paris 2024, even breaking Denmark's traditional dominance of European badminton.
"With these three guys we just wanted to be better and better and we wanted to improve together," Lanier said. "When one became stronger, then the others followed and it was natural.
"They showed me that we can, from France, win the European titles and we can beat the Danish guys. We can beat everyone in the world; that's not impossible."
Alex Lanier's badminton idols
Lanier has been playing badminton since he was two, following his parents who played recreationally. "My parents say, 'You were around all the time when we were on court when you were two or so,'" he recalled.
Over those 15 years, he developed a passion for the sport and found idols to model his game on.
When asked about the players he admired growing up, the teenager replied, "Lin Dan of course. I feel that he's a mixture of 'laziness' and power at the same time."
He soon clarified what he meant by laziness.
"We think that he's not really moving (around the court), but he had a beautiful deception and he didn't really need to move, in fact."
In more recent years, the rise of Denmark's Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen has given the Frenchman another player to look up to.
"Axelsen… just he's so strong and it's unbelievable to just see his game," Lanier affirmed. "He's a good inspiration for me."
"Nothing special" being junior number one for Alex Lanier
You might think being ranked top of the world, best in class, first among millions would be something to soak in.
Not for Lanier. "I can say it's nothing special," the Frenchman said of his top junior ranking which he first achieved in August 2022 and has held since with the exception of two weeks.
"Someone said, 'Oh, you are one number one in the world in junior.' And I said, 'Okay, that's fine.' That's not [because] I don't really care about juniors, but I prefer to win in seniors than win in juniors for sure. That's more important."
Lanier will try and make Paris 2024 but faces an uphill struggle with the Popov brothers ahead of him. So what does he have in mind for the coming seasons?
"Just to play against the best players in the world in Super 300, Super 500 (BWF World Tour tournaments). For sure, I have in my head the Olympics in Paris, but I know that it would be hard for me because I'm a bit late, I can say.
"For Paris I know that I'm a bit younger, but for me that's not a reason to just manage my [expectations] and say 'Okay, I have time.' Because I don't.
"I prefer to say I will try to [compete] in Paris, and if I cannot, then I look at LA 2028 in the future. I will do my maximum for that."