“The room is very beautiful. I really appreciated the contrast between the darkness of the stands and the light on the pitches. » Barely finished with his first training session, Toma Junior Popov, a 25-year-old French badminton athlete, is already won over by the Adidas Arena, the new venue built in Paris for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Inaugurated a month earlier, the venue in the 18th arrondissement of the capital hosts, from March 5 to 10, the French Open Badminton Championships – one of the most prestigious tournaments on the circuit. This year, all the best players in the world are there. And for good reason. These five days of competition sound like a dress rehearsal before the Olympic tournament, which will take place in this same venue, from July 27 to August 5.
At home, the French team will try to win the first medal in its history in the discipline. Unlike previous editions, where their chances of a podium finish were slim, this year the Blues have two elements that could thwart the Danish and Asian domination.
A first title in Germany
Like table tennis with the Lebrun brothers, recent silver medalists at the World Team Championships, French badminton can boast of having prodigious siblings: the Popov brothers. Respectively aged 21 and 25, Christo (27th world player) and Toma Junior (25th) are in the race to qualify for Paris 2024. Their recent results would make them serious “outsiders” in the men’s singles table. Problem, one of them risks falling by the wayside.
France is guaranteed to have at least one representative at the Games. It will be the best badista in the “race”, that is to say the one who will have obtained the best results the year preceding the Games (from May 1, 2023 to April 28, 2024). Christo, the youngest, has just passed his brother with his first title, won in Germany on March 3. But for the eldest, Toma Junior, nothing is over yet. Between now and the end of April, there are five tournaments left to collect as many points as possible.
“We don’t talk too much about this competition between us,” explains Toma Junior. We just have to begin the final deadlines to come as rigorously as possible. We know, for example, that the European Championships [from April 8 to 14, in Saarbrücken, Germany] will be very expensive in terms of points. »
“We have very healthy competition.”
A scenario still exists for the two French people to realize their dream and participate together, in singles, in the Olympics. On April 28, everyone must have climbed among the sixteen best players in the world in two months. A performance that is difficult to achieve.
“We try to tell ourselves that it’s a year like any other. We have been playing on the same circuit for a long time, so we are used to being opponents, recalls Christo. We have very healthy competition. The one who qualifies will be the one who deserves the most. May the best win ! »
Thanks to the doubles tournament, the Popovs also have a chance to both end up on the same side of the net in five months. But, again, the road to the Games is long. The tricolor clan will only field its best pair in the “race” and the two brothers (42nd) are for the moment behind Lucas Corvée and Ronan Labar (36th).
For Toma Popov, the father, these Olympic Games will be an emotional moment, no matter which of his sons gets the ticket to Paris 2024 – if not both. This former Bulgarian badminton champion, now a coach, left his country in 2004 for France to provide a more stable life for his family. Seeing one of his sons shine during the Games in Paris would be a great milestone in this long history.
