Badminton Europe is happy to announce its first BEC World Class Elite Scholarships providing support to European top players.

The BEC World Class Scholarship programme has been developed through the work of the High Performance Commission. Many European elite players have applied for the BEC World Class Elite Scholarships. A voting panel chose Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva (Bulgaria) as well as Isabel Lohau (Germany) to receive the scholarship that will provide them with financial support over a period of one year to support them toward achieving their aims at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The World Class Elite Scholarships focus on supporting identified needs in the high performance setup of individual players, who have shown the potential of winning medals at future World Championships and/or Olympic Games. The scholarships can be used by these players to work with an extra or special coach, participate in extra training camps, enable them to train with extra sparring players, or enable them to participate in more tournaments.

“Supporting our European top players and top talents is important for BEC. The BEC World Class Elite Scholarships is a part of the World Class programme, a programme that is designed to support current European top players and hopefully our future European stars. I'm pleased to see the many applications received for the BEC World Class Elite Scholarship. Congratulations to the Stoeva sisters and Isabel on their scholarships. I look forward to follow theirs and all European top players' performances at the upcoming World Championships and Olympic Games”, stated Jacob Oehlenschlæger, Development & High Performance Senior Manager at Badminton Europe.

For Stefani Stoeva it meant a lot to receive the Scholarship given the strong competition for only a few spots on the program: "This scholarship will help us to get more sparrings as it usually is hard for us to practice match situations here in Bulgaria. I think this will help us a lot in order to be ready for the big events. When we heard that we got the scholarship we were really surprised and happy."

Isabel Lohau, who won a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships in mixed doubles with Mark Lamsfuss, will also use the BEC World Class Elite Scholarship to prepare for the upcoming World Championships and Olympic Games: "I am really thankful Badminton Europe chose me for this scholarship amongst so many outstanding players here in Europe. 2022 was an amazing year for us and this financial support will definitely help me to strive for more in this crucial period leading up to Paris 2024."

BEC thanks all applicants for their interest in BEC World Class Elite Scholarships and encourages them to look out for future information about BEC World Class support programmes and opportunities to apply. For further information, please contact Jacob Oehlenschlaeger jacob.oehlenschlaeger@badmintoneurope.com