Vive La France at the World championships

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue sliced through the mixed doubles field at the World championship. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The French are known for a lot of things but badminton isn’t one of them. Till Sunday, when the country that has never been considered among the top nations even in Europe created history at the 2026 World championships, in more ways than one.

Less than two hours after Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue stroked and smashed their way into history books as the first-ever French World champions in the sport, Alex Lanier won the men’s title to join the celebrations. The wins, however, were anything but fluke given the recent rise of French players on the BWF circuit.

“It’s amazing, 10 years ago no French player could have even thought about so that makes us feel happy and proud,” Gicquel admitted. That was also when he and Delrue first came together as a pair and since then, have seen the development of the sport back home from close quarters.

Asked about the reasons for the growth of French badminton, Delrue credited the mentality and influx of resources from the national federation.

“It’s the mentality that we can win. Sports is more professional in France than before, there are more staff and players and we can focus on performance. We had a good group when we were young and won a lot in Europe. The federation put more money into infrastructure and facilities for us to be better,” she explained.

The fact that Lanier was on the verge of creating history on his own only pushed them harder.

“We have a healthy competition between all of us, we try to bring France to the top of every tournament and see that every week someone is achieving something. To be the first was a pressure we enjoyed,” Delrue agreed and Gicquel chipped in, “We were also a bit stressed that Alex can win in one hour so we wanted to win before him!”

Lanier, meanwhile, was a lot more emotional about France’s triumphs on the day.

“Today was a day for France and French badminton, I didn’t feel like I won for me today, unlike yesterday or the day before when it was for me. After the mixed doubles win I felt I needed to give them a double smile and make this a historic moment,” he said after his victory.

Delrue admitted the results have only just started. “We are really proud of helping take France to the top among European countries and now at the World level, there’s Alex and Popov brothers and others.

Asked what kind of welcome they expected back home, Gicquel laughed. “Nobody knows us, nobody would be waiting for us,” he quipped.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.