Paris. Kneeling and in tears, Carolina Marín said goodbye in the cruelest way possible to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this Sunday in the badminton semifinals, with an injury to her right knee that reopens the nightmare she went through in 2019 and 2021.
The 31-year-old from Huelva, gold medallist at Rio 2016, was giving a performance at the Porte de Chapelle Arena against China’s He Bing Jiao, after winning the first set 21-14. In the second set, she increased the level of aggression, suffocating her rival and leaving her opponent without answers.
The result seemed to be heading for a quick victory, with 10-5 in favour of the Andalusian, when in one of her frantic movements she placed her right knee incorrectly and fell to the ground in pain, aware of the severity of the injury.
“He looked at me and said: ‘I’m broken’,” said his coach, Fernando Rivas, in a sad press conference after the match.
After being treated by the medical services and after consulting with her coach, Marín decided to continue playing with a knee brace, but completely deprived of her mobility, she lost three consecutive points before falling to the ground in tears and agreeing to retire.
“It’s not fair, I think Carolina deserved to finish the Games, win or lose, but enjoying them,” Rivas added.
Tears of bitterness, from someone who knows his body and knows that a nightmare that seemed like a thing of the past was back.
Injuries of 2019 and 2021
The first time Marín had to face the nightmare was in January 2019, the year she started as the reigning Olympic, world and European champion, with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Seven months later, she returned to the track and in 2021 she shone by being proclaimed European champion again, a sign of optimism for the Tokyo 2020 Games, but at the end of May of that year, just two months before the Olympic event, Carolina tore her anterior cruciate ligament and two menisci in her left knee again.
After a long and complicated recovery, she returned to the courts to win the 2022 European Championships, and in 2023, now pain-free, she defended her European title, won tournaments again and took silver at the World Championships.
The year 2024 looked promising, with a victory at the prestigious All England tournament among other titles, and she arrived in Paris looking to repeat the feat of Rio 2016.
“Now we have to assess the injury, do the usual tests, stay calm and accept what we have,” said the coach.
Marín, currently number 4 in the world, is the only non-Asian player to have won gold since badminton became an Olympic sport in Barcelona 1992, an achievement that speaks for itself of the dimension that the Andalusian player has in her sport.
In Paris, she was 11 points away from reaching a final that would have guaranteed her silver, and she will not be able to compete in the match for bronze.
“It’s a very difficult time for Carolina and for all Spanish sport, not just badminton. She was one step away from her second Olympic final and fighting for her second gold and an injury leaves her without a medal. At least, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should award her the bronze. She deserves it,” reacted Andoni Azurmendi, president of the Spanish Badminton Federation, in X.
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– 2024-08-05 09:13:02
