General

Badminton Canada is happy to announce that Mario Santoso, renowned badminton coach and former Assistant Head Coach at the Paris Games, has been named a recipient of the 2024 Future Olympians Fund Award. This accolade highlights his dedication to nurturing the next generation of athletes.

Alongside him, rising badminton star Rachel Chan has also received this honor. The Future Olympians Fund Award is designed to provide vital resources for promising athletes and their coaches, enhancing high-level athlete-coach relationships to propel them toward their Olympic aspirations.

Santoso demonstrated an exceptional commitment to athlete development, fostering a culture of excellence and resilience. His experience will play a pivotal role in supporting Rachel as she pursues her Olympic dreams.

The Future Olympians Fund has a history of empowering athletes and coaches through funding for high-performance training, coaching development opportunities, and essential resources to meet the demands of elite competition. With this award, Rachel will have access to funds for training expenses, equipment, and other developmental needs.

Future Olympians Fund

The Future Olympians Fund (FOF) Award dedicates resources toward Next Gen athletes and their coaches, to support high-level athlete-coach relationships to propel the next generation of Olympians and their coaches forward on the pathway to the podium.

In past years, FOF resources have also been used to provide coaching development opportunities, employ and retain more full-time high-performance coaches. 

Rachel Chan - Athlete

• Won gold in women's singles and mixed doubles (with Brian Yang) at Cali 2021, the inaugural Junior Pan American Games, qualifying her directly for the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games 
• In 2020 became the youngest female badminton player to win a singles title at the Canadian Championships  
• Won back-to-back singles medals at the senior Pan American Championships in 2021 and 2022, taking silver followed by bronze 
• Won two medals at the U19 Pan American Championships in 2019, taking gold in women's doubles and silver in mixed doubles; was also a quarterfinalist in singles 
• Represented Canada at the 2019 BWF World Junior Championships

 

Mario Santoso - Assistant Head Coach

Mario Santoso is a former Badminton player, and his best achievements were in the semifinals of the Elite Yonex Canada Ontario event in 2011 and 2012. However, in his career as a coach, he has successfully orbited players in Canada to compete in the international arena .

One of the highlighted achievements was certainly when Brian Yang almost defeated Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen in the group phase of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Mario was Assistant Head Coach at the Paris Games.