Aspiring Athletes Grateful for Scholarship Opportunity

April 3, 2023

In April 2023, Badminton World Federation (BWF) and World Academy of Sport (WaoS) announced the beginning of a new cycle of scholarships for the . Young athletes between the ages of 15 and 18 who want to gain more knowledge and be successful athletes were encouraged to take the course.

The dual-career programme offers athletes a unique opportunity to be able to continue their studies without giving up their athletic careers.

In 2022, 44 females and 70 males undertook the Athlete Certificate alongside their professional playing careers. BWF received 114 scholarship applications spanning 35 countries, across all five continents from players that were competing in BWF-sanctioned tournaments or at national level.  Since 2020, BWF has offered scholarship opportunities to players from diverse cultural backgrounds and is proud to continue providing such opportunities to youth to excel in their academic studies alongside their athletic prowess.

HANUMAN Cheerag Pravish (MRI) - Athlete Certificate Scholar 2022

While Hanuman Pravish, 18, still has a lot of badminton left in him, the men’s doubles player from Mauritius has a fallback career in mind and was one recipient of the programme in 2022. Pravish, who competed at the All Africa Junior Championship 2022 and was a semifinalist in mixed doubles and men’s doublesby WAoS in partnership with BWF.

“The course was interesting and helpful to me. I think the course has helped my badminton skills on and off the court. The key for me is discipline. It is an interesting programme which helps to balance sports and studies. All your focus must be on badminton when you are training and the same applies to studying. I would love a job related to badminton in the future. Coaching is a topic I am looking forward to uncovering more about.

“Badminton is a sport with so many challenges, moves, and tricks and it’s really brilliant.”

CHEONG Kwok Khuen (MAS) - Athlete Certificate Scholar 2020

Junior Malaysian player, Cheong Kwok Khuen, one of the scholars of the WAoS Athlete Certificate Programme in 2020, expressed his gratitude to BWF for the chance to enhance his badminton knowledge in Event Management.

“After completing the Athlete Certificate Programme, I am very thankful to BWF for recommending me to take the introductory BWF Event Management online course because it helped me significantly in organising a badminton workshop encouraging children to learn badminton.  I would like to share my gratitude for the opportunities provided by BWF.”

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Scholarships are open for the WAoS Athlete Certificate Programme. For more on the BWF-WAoS Scholarship Programme, click here.