The sun in Paris had heated the air to 35 degrees when I stepped off the bus and walked through the barrier into a special place for French sports.
Security staff scan the personalized code sent by Kęstutis Navickas, and wiping the sweat from my brow, I notice the bicycles and other means of transport lined up at the entrance, intended for moving around the 28-hectare area.
Visiting here for the first time, walking is more interesting because you can look around more carefully – for example, along the long alley decorated with posters of French sports stars near the huge open athletics stadium.
Tony Parker, multiple NBA champion, smiles from one poster, judo legend Teddy Riner from another, and three-time Olympic running champion Marie-Josee Perec from a third.
They all spent many years at INSEP, the legendary French sports forge, where K.Navickas, who has been working here for five and a half years and is welcoming me, is the best Lithuanian badminton player of all time and in recent years has been coaching the French badminton national team.
In a small office on the second floor of one of the buildings, the 42-year-old from Kaunas still has to finish analyzing a game recording, and meanwhile, I get acquainted with his international team of specialists, which includes a Finn and a Spaniard.
K.Navickas shows files with numbers and curves about players’ training processes, their daily well-being, plans, and other information that at first glance is as difficult to understand as covering all the huge INSEP sports fields and halls in a couple of hours.
But K.Navickas invites me on a tour, and we travel through different buildings, halls, fields, and streets.
- INSEP is the elite sports base of France.
- After the unsuccessful 1960 Olympic Games in Rome for the French, it was decided to establish a huge sports base, which has been regularly updated and modernized since 1965.
- About 450 athletes live there permanently, including about 150 young athletes.
- The base, managed by the French Ministry of Sports, serves various sports federations. Every year, all federations submit lists of elite athletes based on their own criteria, and the ministry selects a certain number of athletes who are given places to live, study, and train.
- It has been calculated that, for example, in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, exactly half – 21 out of 42 French athletes’ Olympic medals – were won by athletes from the INSEP system.
We walk past badminton, fencing, gymnastics, and basketball halls.
There are quite few athletes training at midday in summer, due to the time of day, trips to competitions, and holidays, but K.Navickas stops and reminds me that many French basketball stars playing in the NBA also come here in the summers.
We continue walking and look around the huge athletics indoor arena, which could fit about six Vilnius indoor arenas (if there were that many here – currently there is only one dedicated to athletics).
We visit the 50-meter swimming pool, inspect the other water area dedicated to diving and synchronized swimming.
We pass by the cycling track, where an obstacle course is set up in the middle, used for the new event in modern pentathlon.
Each sports hall has separate training areas so athletes can quickly change the nature of their workouts.
We pass a building where 80 sports doctors work (from physiotherapists and masseurs to dentists). There are also rooms and equipment for sports scientists who maintain close contact with coaches and athletes, and in total about 300 specialists work in the administrative INSEP team.
K.Navickas points to a row of red brick buildings further away where many young athletes live and study.
We reach the cafeteria, and over coffee, we consider how good it would be to transfer at least part of such a complex to Lithuania, when Alex Lanier passes by.
In 2020, at just 15, he joined INSEP, and now, as K.Navickas’s protégé at 21, he has already won the European badminton singles gold (2025) and with the French team won gold in the team event (2026) and entered the top ten best badminton players in the world.
“Two Kęstutises? It’s already hard to address one because it’s hard for a French person to pronounce, and now there are two?” joked A.Lanier.
He is currently competing in the World Championship and at the time of writing this text had reached the semifinals, eliminating the world number 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
But before leaving for New Delhi (India), he stops by his coach to discuss upcoming plans and talk about the specialist from Lithuania himself.
“As a person and as a coach, Kęstutis is different,” said the French badminton talent. “As a personality, I think he is very open, trying to understand new things. He openly listens to others’ opinions and tries to understand, although he always has his own opinion. I think thanks to him, I have also learned to accept and try to understand other people’s thinking and worldview.
Maybe in terms of organization, he is not the best, but when he focuses on something, he becomes very good. He can reduce weaknesses and develop strengths.
As a coach, he can see some game nuances differently than a player on the court. I would say that in the coach’s position, he sticks to his opinion more than in everyday life.”
A.Lanier and K.Navickas spend a lot of time together at the INSEP base and on tournament trips, but in their free time, they share a hobby – they go together to watch EuroLeague games at the Paris arena.
“The only problem is that I really like the NBA, and he likes EuroLeague basketball,” Alex joked.
It’s easy to understand that K.Navickas cares about the EuroLeague, especially Kaunas “Žalgiris,” because the sports director of the strongest Lithuanian basketball team is his twin brother Gediminas Navickas.
Once their sports careers took the brothers on different paths, Gediminas becoming a world youth champion with the Lithuanian basketball team and a professional basketball player, and Kęstutis making it to the Olympic Games and eventually winning a European Games bronze in badminton.
Is it strange for Alex that the French badminton national team coach is a specialist from a country known for basketball rather than badminton?
“It doesn’t matter to me at all, I didn’t even consider it,” A.Lanier replied. “He embodies that Eastern European culture, which is very good in my opinion. On the other hand, he is completely European because during his career he trained and played in many countries around the world. I would say Kęstutis is a blend of different cultures, which I personally like a lot. Maybe it’s a stereotype, but Eastern Europeans are more reserved and pragmatic than we French. However, he can be emotional, so he has many qualities. That’s good.”
K.Navickas may not feel French, but he already considers himself local not only because he likes to ride a bike from home to work or explore Paris more broadly.
The conversation with K.Navickas over coffee outside the INSEP cafeteria was also not only about badminton.
– Kęstutis, how do you feel living in Paris for the fifth year?
– I joke that I am the biggest ambassador of Paris because I talk about the French capital very expressively and enthusiastically in various countries around the world, because for me Paris is the best city in the world.
But, of course, I first came here not for Paris, but to work as a badminton coach. And the city of Paris is like a variety of spices to me.
I have been living here for 4.5 years now, so the scope of responsibilities is growing, but at the same time, I feel at home here, and people increasingly accept me as one of their own. I am like a veteran in our badminton coaching team, so I feel respected and am getting more accustomed myself.
I am used to the team and the French lifestyle, so I feel very good here as a coach and a person.
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Many aspects helped me get used to and adapt here, but I always say that the most help comes from one’s own efforts. I put effort both at work and in trying to understand other people. People see and appreciate that. That’s why I work here for a long time.
– You have achieved a lot over this time – your trainees have won many important victories, and you were chosen as the best European badminton coach of 2025. What are you most proud of during the period when you moved from the international badminton center in Copenhagen to work in Paris?
– I value continuity, loyalty, and systematic improvement the most, both of my individual players and the entire French federation. We manage to combine many things and achieve historic successes for French badminton, and I improve as a coach, knowing more and more about the latest technologies and physical and psychological preparation.
By communicating with specialists from various fields, including psychologists, I manage to create overall group improvement. Alex is the more visible face of the group, but others improve as well. And that is what I value the most.
Historic sports achievements came very quickly together: Alex became European champion, won the strongest tournaments, was seventh in the world ranking (now tenth). As a team, we became the strongest in Europe for the first time and second in the world for the first time.
I believe these results come from systematic improvement. That’s why I value the common platform that helps all players improve.
– Why is the INSEP sports complex so special and what from this system could be applied to Lithuanian sports?
– Traveling around the world, I have seen many different Olympic centers. Arriving at such a facility, I always wonder why in Lithuania we have not managed to create a unified sports system over so many years. Many changes happen, but a unified system has not been created, although we are improving – more pools and other sports bases have been built, especially in Kaunas.
INSEP accommodates 26 different Olympic sports. The essential thing is that everything is connected.
Young people are provided with conditions to study here, and studies are combined with training. The medical system is synchronized with different sports federations. People live and eat here. Even after finishing school, one can continue studying.
The created system meets the needs of sports, social, science, as well as rest and rehabilitation. Such synchronization of various life areas is a great strength.
In Lithuania, there is a good sports center in Druskininkai, where players from my academy and the Lithuanian Badminton Federation also train, but it is probably the only such sports center in Lithuania, and even it does not necessarily meet all needs – for example, you cannot study there, and the social aspect is limited.
– Would you have wanted to train and live at INSEP in your youth?
– I would definitely have made it into the Top-20 in the world (smiles K.Navickas, who reached 37th place in the world badminton ranking).
With my character, talent, and diligence, under such conditions, I could have achieved more. Sometimes I friendly envy the current players for the opportunities they have.
But they also know what hard work is. High intensity, great responsibility. I also push my players, sometimes thinking: maybe too much? Then I look for balance again.
But I would have wanted to have such a coach and such conditions.
– How do you manage to combine your coaching work in Paris with remotely leading Kęstutis Navickas Badminton Academy?
– The intensity in France is high, but I dedicate time to the academy almost every day. Mostly, it is coordination work with the academy’s coaches and administration. Also, searching for sponsors and partners and creating our overall system.
I dedicate time to this daily, usually after direct working hours or on weekends. When I return to Lithuania, I try to visit the academy every time. I put a lot of effort and energy into passing on experience to the academy. My ambitions are international, global, but my heart is always in Lithuania, which I show not only in words but also in actions through the academy.
I am very happy that the academy is growing, we have good synergy with the Lithuanian Badminton Federation, and now another big event awaits as we approach the opportunity to create the best conditions for badminton youth and amateurs to train and develop badminton culture: a new badminton arena will soon open.
This will happen in October in Kaunas, we will have 14 courts, and it will be the largest badminton arena in Europe. The ambition is for it to be a modern arena dedicated to badminton, so that we have all the best opportunities and space for athletes and amateurs.
– What does the global future of badminton look like, knowing that other racket games like padel and pickleball are becoming popular, not to mention tennis?
– I see that a big challenge is to create a badminton culture so that young people have role models, see badminton stars, and the media writes about it. Results take many years, but we are doing it and are on the right path.
I don’t think we compete with padel or other sports. Still, we have a broader player base and more professional players. Of course, padel is also trying, but it is not as developed as badminton yet.
Our youth is improving more and more, gaining more international experience, and right now we really need funding to compete with France or Asian countries because their opportunities are practically unlimited – they get everything they need. We already have a system in Lithuania, but we also need funding to accumulate international experience.
– Is sports management the most common topic when talking with your brother, Gediminas Navickas, sports director of Kaunas “Žalgiris” basketball club?
– We talk a lot about work. But work is our lifestyle.
There is a lot of relationships and communication at work, how to properly express your opinion. We often talk about how to manage a team.
As Alex said, I try first to hear and understand different personalities. My brother also does and can do that. Of course, we talk a lot about basketball but also about work relationships. We advise each other a lot; I try to tell him how coaches or players think, and he tells me more about how club leaders think. Our experiences come from different branches, and we try to combine them.
I talk with my brother almost every day, I am very proud of him and happy. I am in the highest position in the world as a badminton coach, and my brother is also doing great – he has great trust from the “Žalgiris” organization, and he also gives his all to the club. It’s nice to see him in that position.
– What do you see next in your career horizons?
– Now my thoughts are on the World Championship, and then international tournaments. India, Hong Kong, China – we will travel on such a tour.
I increasingly receive very interesting offers from Asia to coach the national teams of the biggest Asian badminton countries, but when I get them, I also think about how it will affect my connection with the academy and personal relationships. I have been in a relationship with Indrė for a significant time now, and my personal life is very important to me at the moment, so I have to balance.
The offers from Asia are interesting, but priorities are personal relationships and connection with the academy. So for now, all thoughts are in France, to manage direct work with these important things. It takes a lot of effort and energy not only from me but also from my partner.
I understand that the stage in France will end someday because I believe that change must happen at the highest level. I want to give my all to leave a mark in the history of French badminton, and later in my career, it will probably be either Asia or my academy. Since I always dedicate a lot of energy to the academy, accepting the Asian offer would be much harder.
If there were opportunities for balance and everything to be coordinated, it would be interesting to take another step in Asia, but if there are no clear prospects, I will return to Lithuania, where I would like to pass on my experience not only to the academy but also to the Lithuanian sports system in general.
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