The best day in the life of Lucas Mazur

Lucas Mazur, a paralympic badminton player supported by Banque Populaire Val de France, retained his Paralympic gold medal in para badminton in the SL4 singles event, after winning bronze in the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles with Faustine Noël, supported by Natixis TradEx Solutions*, on the same day!

A bronze medal in the morning with Faustine Noël

But what a day! The best day of his life, as he said so himself. Lucas Mazur, an athlete supported by Banque Populaire Val de France, first won a hard-fought bronze medal in the mixed doubles with his partner Faustine Noël, supported by Natixis TradEx Solutions. The pair had already won silver medals in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. For Paris 2024, Faustine and Lucas were on the podium again after their victory in the third place playoff against the Thai doubles. Although this morning victory with Faustine took a lot of energy, it gave Lucas the impetus he needed to go on and conquer the Paralympic holy grail at the end of the day: the gold medal that now confirms his place among the great French champions of the Paralympic Games, renewing the gold medal triumph he achieved in Tokyo.

It was at the end of a masterful final against the world number one, a match that Lucas Mazur (26) controlled from start to finish, that the French para badminton player achieved one of the greatest feats of these Paralympic Games. It was all the more impressive considering (as he has already admitted) how difficult it had been for him to support all the pressure in Tokyo. So you can imagine the pressure he was under here at home in Paris: pressure to win this medal in the SL4 category! And it is undoubtedly during this experience of a Paralympic final – a moment so difficult, so oppressive, and so full of stress – that champions enjoy that sense of fulfilment, when they feel – as Lucas put it – nothing but the pleasure of being there, of experiencing every second of the match to the full!

Badminton as a refuge

Lucas suffered a stroke at the age of 3, which left him with mobility problems and resulted in his being ridiculed at school and in being obliged to use his left hand for everything from then on. However, born as he was into a family of accomplished athletes – his mother had played in the first basketball division and his father had been a member of the French table tennis team – he put his heart and soul into sport despite his disability. Para badminton would become his opening to the world, his breath of oxygen, his means of escape from the disability that set him apart in the playground but not on the court. After trying football and rugby, he discovered badminton at the age of 11 and grew into an elite-level player, thanks to his height (he stands more than 6 feet tall, 1m92 to be precise) and thanks his natural talent and a lot of hard work.

Although he ranks among the world’s most outstanding singles players, he had the foresight to learn to play doubles, enabling him to go and claim a Paralympic medal together with Faustine Noël. Although they live far apart geographically, they organized their schedules to be able to train together several times during the season in order to deepen their connection and perfect their automatic responses, decisive qualities for winning the doubles medal. Despite this success, Lucas is not entirely satisfied. He is thinking of returning to his studies in business administration, something that he put on hold for his Paralympic ambitions, before setting his sights on a 3^rd medal in Los Angeles.

* Natixis TradEx Solutions is an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers. 

To learn about the para athletes, athletes and teams supported by Groupe BPCE companies taking part in Paris 2024: