The 2025 European Championships are now underway, and the biggest stars from our continent are set to battle for both the prestigious title and valuable ranking points on the world stage.
Unfortunately, three of the biggest stars won’t be able to compete this year in Horsens due to injuries. Seven-time champion Carolina Marin is still undergoing rehabilitation after her serious knee injury at the Olympics last year. Viktor Axelsen underwent back surgery last week and will not be participating. And just yesterday, Badminton Denmark announced that Mia Blichfeldt has had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury that will keep her out for the next few months.

Luckily, we still have many other incredible stars and talented players in the competition. Among them are four players who are full-time members of Badminton Europe’s High Performance Centre and two more who are part-time affiliated.
The mission of the High Performance Centre is to help make European badminton competitive in a global context, and we are therefore proud to have several players represented at the European Championships.

At the High Performance Centre, we are working with a vision to provide a high-quality and aspirational training base for talented and deserving players from across Europe. We aim to become a vehicle for extended cooperation among Members, to benefit the overall development of both European and World Badminton. Therefore, having so many players affiliated with the centre represented at the European Championships is a strong statement.

The players from the centre who will be in action at the tournament are:

• Markus Barth from Norway, who will face Aria Dinata from Croatia on Tuesday.
• Kim Schmidt from Luxembourg, who is up against the strong Léonice Huet from France.
• Belgian brothers Iljo and Yaro Van Delsen, who will face the Bulgarian pair Ivan Rusev/Iliyan Stoynov.
• On Wednesday, Milan Dratva from Slovakia and Dimitar Yanakiev from Bulgaria will also compete. The latter will face a very tough challenge as he takes on the 5th seed, Christo Popov from France.

To coach and support the players from the High Performance Centre, they will have Head Coach Dennis Christensen with them, who is looking forward to seeing the players in action at this year’s European Championships.