“At what point do you think about it? Why did he do it? Where did he get the pin, because I never gave him that pin from Spain? Did he already have it before the day of the final or did he want to get it to get it on the podium? ? And, above all, what impact did it have on its culture? Carolina Marín’s head is overflowing with unanswered questions about the gesture that changed his life and that, as she herself confesses, “no one had ever done something like this for me.” It refers to the moment in which He Bingjiao, her rival in the fateful Olympic semi-final on August 6 in which she had to leave destroyed inside and out, decides to honor her on the podium by showing a pin from the Spanish Olympic team. Now, thanks to the Chinese player’s trip to Spain to receive one of the Relevo X Change awards for her attitude full of values, it has been the protagonist herself who has been able to give her all the answers.
What few people or no one knows until now is that the moment almost didn’t happen due to the result of the final, where He fell to the favorite, the Korean An. “At that moment, when I got on the podium, I was very hesitant about whether to wear the pin or not.. And it’s not because I didn’t want to wear the pin, it’s because It said ‘I have won the silver medal and she deserves this gesture along with a gold medal’. But, in the end, I decided to take it anyway because since you already had a gold, you wouldn’t mind if it was now with a silver.” Carolina, excited and who doesn’t take long to give him a hug after hearing this phrase, explains to him that the most special thing was that, at a moment like that, in his first Olympic medal, he was thinking about her: “It’s not about whether it was a silver medal or a gold medal. It’s about thinking about your rival at that moment. I wanted and I was going to Paris to win the gold and I couldn’t bring it with me, but The gesture you made me has been my best medal“.
But where did the pin come from? Many people may have thought that it was a prepared move, with a pin provided by the Chinese or even the Spanish delegation. But nothing could be further from the truth. “I had the pin from the days before the semifinal and during most of the tournament; He always accompanied me because I liked to think that I could compete alongside Carolina Marín from Spain“, confesses He, who has decided to withdraw from the Chinese team after the Olympic event.
He is a quiet, humble and, one could even say, embarrassing young woman. Therefore, surely, the pin she showed at the award ceremony was from another Spanish athlete and not from Carolina herselfas he would have liked. “In the Olympic Village everyone wanted the China pin, but I couldn’t exchange it with you. I thought: Don’t you like my pin? I just wanted to change it with you“, he now says in front of a woman from Huelva who can’t stop smiling in a conversation that he needed to close this episode.
The reunion between the Spanish and the Chinese at the Relevo facilities is a succession of exciting moments for ‘Caro’, who listens carefully to the admiration that one of the great rivals of her career has for her. “When you were injured and after the final, when I had to get on the podium, I was thinking about how to send you a message. Knowing that you didn’t have your phone on, it seemed like the best way to get this message to you. Of wanting to personally share the joy and honor of being on the podium, and of being with you competing together. That honor of doing it together“.
“I knew that I was going to receive the photos and all the media exposure, so I knew that this way you would be able to see what I wanted to express to you.. Since I couldn’t communicate with you, neither in the locker room nor in person, I could do it this way,” He reveals, completing the puzzle of an unforgettable memory for Carolina.
“I felt so loved by your family that, since then, I feel emotionally connected to you”
Although they now seem inseparable as the minutes of this reunion pass, He and Carolina had had a respectful relationship, common within the circuit among the best in the world. Now, the Asian woman herself tells her former rival that she soured her matches on the other side of the net so many times that, at least for her, it all started much earlier. “I feel super emotionally connected to you, and not since now. I remember When I beat you at the 2022 French Open, your family came up to me to give me hugs and congratulate me. I also felt so loved by your family.when I was afraid that they would not love me for having won their daughter, since then I feel more than empathy with you.”
One of the ‘hoaxes’ that circulated the networks in the days after this gesture that went around the world was that the Chinese regime had punished He for doing so. That is why Carolina wonders how making this personal decision had affected her culture and her country. Obviously, it was not real and the Chinese government sees in He a source of values for its youngest players, whom she will now dedicate herself to training, and that is why the entire leadership of the country’s Embassy accompanied her during the gala.
