Three weeks after Carolina Marín injured her cruciate ligament and both menisci in her knee for the third time and said she did not know if she would play again, she declared in an interview with RTVE broadcast on Tuesday that she will not let an injury stop her. “I would like to retire on a badminton court,” the player from Huelva added, although she did not clarify her return date. “At the moment I am in no hurry. I am not setting a date for next year or in fifteen or sixteen months. When I start to have that strength and I see myself with confidence,” she said.
Carolina Marín, who ended Asian dominance in badminton in 2014 when she won her first world championship, broke her knee in the semi-final match of the last Games against China’s He Bing Jiao. The Huelva native clearly dominated the match. “I looked so good in these Games that when I found out I had broken my knee I wanted to continue because I only had 11 points left. That match was mine and I was very sad to retire due to an injury,” she said. Marín says that the words she said to her coach, Fernando Rivas, when she arrived at the locker room were: “I can’t take it anymore.”
The memory of her cruciate ligament tears in 2019 and 2021 has made the Huelva native want to treat this injury differently than the previous ones. “I want to be very patient in this process, I don’t want everything to be as fast and rushed as with the previous two. Now I want to take my time, I want to enjoy many other things that I haven’t been able to do because of sport,” Marín said on Tuesday.
“I have never felt so loved”
The Spaniard has thanked all the support she has received after her injury in Paris. “I have never felt so loved, not even when I won gold in Rio (…). I have had a whole country supporting me,” she said. The displays of affection for Marín since she suffered the injury on August 4 have not stopped happening. Professional colleagues such as Pau Gasol, Carlos Alcaraz or Saúl Craviotto supported the badminton player. The last display of affection took place two days ago, when the Paralympic swimmer Teresa Perales dedicated the bronze medal to her in the 50-meter backstroke. “I have many people to dedicate the medal to, but, with the permission of all my family, who always support me, and all my friends, I am going to dedicate it to Carolina Marín,” she said after the feat.
At 31 years old, Carolina Marín has been Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro 2016, three-time world champion in 2014, 2015 and 2018; and seven-time European champion. This sporting career will be honoured on 25 October at the Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, where the Huelva native will receive the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Sport. “For her extraordinary track record in a sport in which she has become an international benchmark. In addition to being the best player in the history of badminton in Spain and one of the best in the world, she is an example of overcoming, a source of inspiration and a transmitter of values, on and off the court,” said the decision of the jury of the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
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