Hall of Fame
Mathieu Laforest from Laval des Rapides, Que., the first badminton player inductee to the Hall.
Laforest was born Jan. 23, 1984 and attended elementary school in Laval at École Sainte-Cécile and École Saint-Gérard. His high school years were spent at École internationale de Laval followed by CEGEP at Collège Montmorency. He enrolled at McGill in 2003 and graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 2008, earning a berth on the Principal's Student-athlete Honour Roll.
A four-time Quebec conference all-star over his five seasons at McGill, Laforest was named team captain as a sophomore and served four years in that capacity. He was a three-time QSSF league singles champion, won the conference doubles title in 2006-07 and was voted team MVP in his senior year.
He capped a brilliant collegiate career by winning the singles title at the Canadian university championships in 2008. Laforest also produced distinguished athletic results outside of his varsity career -- winning eight Canadian junior championships -- and was inducted into the Quebec Badminton Hall of Fame in 2015.
