In recent years, Alex Lanier, coached by Kęstutis Navickas in Paris, has won the brightest title of his career.
The 21-year-old Frenchman defeated Japanese Kodai Naraoka 21-11, 21-11 in the world championship final in New Delhi on Sunday and adorned himself with the world championship gold medal.
Until now, A. Lanier’s greatest success was achieved in 2025 when he became the European badminton champion.
The world’s 10th-ranked Frenchman created the biggest surprise in this world championship in the quarterfinals, when after losing the first set and trailing 3-11 in the second, he managed to turn the match around and defeat Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the second-ranked player and participant in the last three championship finals.
A. Lanier’s title came the same weekend when the French mixed doubles pair Delphine Delrue and Thomas Gicquel also won the world champion title.
“Fifteen years ago, we couldn’t even dream about this,” emphasized “L’Equipe” about France’s badminton success in a sport long dominated by Asians.
The biggest French sports channel noted that Kęstutis Navickas significantly contributed to A. Lanier’s progress.
“His progress followed the plan, mostly inspired by his coach Kęstutis Navickas,” wrote “L’Equipe”. “The Lithuanian created this plan back when Alex Lanier appeared in the sports world, becoming the first Frenchman to win a ‘Super 750’ tournament a few weeks after the 2024 Olympic Games, at the age of 19. Since then, he was crowned European champion in 2025 and won his second ‘Super 750’ tournament in Singapore in June.
Along with youth, the intense training schedule sometimes led to loss of focus; in spring he had somewhat lost motivation, but before the trip to India, K. Navickas was satisfied. ‘Simply a better player than before. His technique has developed, his understanding of the game is more advanced, he can play in any hall in the world,’ “L’Equipe” quoted K. Navickas.
With 42-year-old K. Navickas, 15min published a long interview conducted at the French sports forge INSEP before the world championship.
Then in Paris, A. Lanier himself shared thoughts about the connection with K. Navickas, the best Lithuanian badminton player of all time, now working for five and a half years as the coach of the French national team. K. Navickas is responsible for the 21-year-old player from Normandy, A. Lanier, who plays in individual competitions.
“As a person and as a coach, Kęstutis is different,” A. Lanier told 15min. “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 also learned to accept and try to understand other people’s thinking and worldview.
Maybe when it comes to organization, he is not the best, but when he focuses, he becomes very good. He can reduce weaknesses and develop strengths.
As a coach, he can see some nuances of the game differently than a player on the court. I would say that being 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 common 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,” A. Lanier laughed.
The French badminton talent said he really appreciated K. Navickas, who moved to France after a career stage in Denmark.
“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 that Kęstutis is a combination of different cultures, which I personally like very much. Maybe it’s a stereotype, but Eastern Europeans are more reserved and pragmatic than we French. However, he can be emotional, so he contains many qualities. That is good,” A. Lanier said about K. Navickas.
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