RIO DE JANEIRO — Badminton’s favourite Dane is standing on court at the Riocentro Pavilion 4, unleashing smash after smash at French players Delphine Lansac and Brice Leverdez. There are no selfie-hunting fans waiting, no adoring spectators cheering in the stands as former world No 1 Peter Gade puts his charges through their training paces here in Rio, a day before the start of the badminton competition at the Olympic Games.

But it is a life the 39-year-old — one of the most popular and respected shuttlers during his time — is enjoying in his new role as high-performance director of the French Badminton Association.

While the Danish shuttler once made his mark on the international circuit — winning the prestigious All England title in 1999, and five European Championships trophies in the men’s singles — he is now happy to groom the next generation of champions for France.

“(Coaching) is very different from being a player. I am a bit more 
relaxed and able to look at things from a different perspective,” Gade told TODAY. “We are still in the early process of me trying to put in a structure in France ... a long-term structure for producing good players in the future. In Denmark, we have a (badminton) tradition, history, we know how to do these things. But, for France, it’s a bit new so it’s a different meaning. I like that, and I learn a lot from that. For me, it’s a new challenge because of the new language, new place and culture.”

The Dane is also enjoying his return to the Olympic Games after four consecutive outings as a player in Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London from 2000 to 2012.

Known for his creative play and smooth footwork on court, Gade is one of the sport’s most successful players, with 22 Grand Prix titles to his name — including the Singapore Open in 2006 — but the Olympics gold remained elusive. His best Games performance was in Sydney in 2000, when he qualified for the semi-finals but lost to eventual gold medallist Ji Xinpeng (China). He finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match to Chinese shuttler Xia Xuanze.

But the father-of-two has no regrets. “I know I did the best I could. I was not good enough on these occasions,” he said. “The Olympics is special, it’s different from the World Championships or other tournaments. I lost to the winner every time, so I did my best. But I still look at the Olympics with a lot of good memories.”

And as the focus here in Rio turns to the highly-anticipated battle for men’s singles gold at the 2016 Games, Gade expects a thrilling fight on the courts here, with a mouth-watering semi-final clash between Chinese superstar Lin Dan — who is aiming for a hat-trick of titles — and world no 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia on the cards.

“I’m really looking forward to the men’s singles,” he said. “I feel like there could be surprises, so you feel like these top three, four guys they may be the contenders for this, so it’s going to be a very exciting men’s singles. Lin Dan is a favourite together with Chong Wei and Chen Long but you have the two Danes (world No 4 Viktor Axelsen and No 5 Jan O Jorgensen). This is the Olympics, each player will try to reach the maximum so, who knows, we might see a few surprises.”