Players’ accommodation, coaches’ flight tickets, the team’s visa application or insurance, etc. The person who oversees these and more is none other than the team manager. For this edition of ‘European Para-Badminton Towards Tokyo 2020’, Badminton Europe (BEC) spoke to Walter Joren, the team manager of the Belgian para-badminton team who is also the Director for para-badminton at the Belgian Badminton Federation and Badminton Vlaanderen.
Let’s listen to Walter on his roles as the team manager, how he started the development of para-badminton in Belgium and his passion for badminton in general.
´Each time that I could go along as para-badminton team manager, I tried to see to it that each team member could fully concentrate on their games, not having to worry about anything else. And as they perform to the best of their abilities, I’m always happy and I really enjoy myself, ´added Walter.
Team Belgian’s ambition is to have at least one player participating in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Walter Joren (2nd from left; second row) with the Belgian para-badminton team
Besides para-badminton, Special Olympics is also one of Walter’s forte. He is the badminton manager at Special Olympics Belgium and assistant regional sport advisor for badminton at Special Olympic Europe Eurasia. At times, he is also involved in recreational badminton and all matters of insurances at Badminton Vlaanderen.
Walter Joren (3rd from left) at a signing ceremony between the Belgian Badminton Federation and Special Olympics Belgium in 2012
Impressive as it is, Walter is doing all these as a volunteer! When he is not doing ‘badminton business’ as he calls it, he is the team leader at CMA CGM Logistics Belgium in Antwerp. Kudos to Walter for his passion and enthusiasm in badminton. The Belgian para-badminton team will take part at the BWF Spanish Para-Badminton International in Alcudia from 7-12 March 2017.
For more information about para-badminton, click
here.
If you have questions regarding para-badminton, please write to Tania Teoh at
tania.teoh@badmintoneurope.com.
Photos by Badminton Europe and Walter Joren