«This injury has been a turning point in my sporting life.. The first thought in the locker room was: “I can’t take it anymore.” The coach told me that he felt enormous pride in me. At this moment, when I was hot, I wanted to hang up my racket, but upon reflection I saw it differently. Carolina Marín left one of the most overwhelming images of the Paris Olympic Games. Her knee broke and she was left lying on the ground. On the verge of a final, his body was breaking again.
The magnitude and pain of that moment reached millions of people and many feared for their professional lives. It was his third major injury. «Since I went home, I worked with the psychologist. I am very grateful to you. I speak out loud about the problems and thanks to their support, and that of my team, I have been able to move forward and see things from another perspective. The player will receive the Princess of Asturias Sports Award and does not hesitate to talk about what has happened to her. «My recovery continues to be slow work. I want to take the time I need. I’m not in a hurry. Since I injured my knee I have not picked up a badminton racket or stepped foot on a court.. “I want to take it easy.”
What are you doing now?
Life has put me in my place without wanting it or drinking it, but I can also spend more time with my family and enjoy it. I am, a little, directing my future and training myself.
What differentiates this injury from the previous ones?
The moment in which it happened to me and how it happened to me. For me the most important thing was these Olympic Games. They were going to be my last Games and for this to happen to me at the time it happened to me I think it was very cruel. I don’t know if it was fair or unfair, but at the end of the day, what’s gone is gone. Now I see it from a different way and perspective. All that remains is to try to get something positive and look forward because looking back leads to nothing. You have to move forward, see what life puts in front of you and analyze it.
You used the word “cruel.” Is sport cruel too? Is it also pain?
Of course, of course, sport is also cruel. That is precisely what I would love to make boys and girls see, that, many times, even though we work and strive to achieve great goals and dreams, many of them are not achieved and that does not mean that we we must frustrate. That just means that not everyone can achieve it because only one can win a tournament. Unfortunately, although we all sacrifice ourselves to be the best, in the end there can only be one winner. In this case, what you have to achieve is that you can look back and do not feel disappointed and do not regret anything you have done. On the contrary, make you feel proud of having pushed yourself to the maximum and pushed yourself to the limit. I look back and feel proud of what I have done, although unfortunately, life has slowed me down in this way. I don’t know if it was fair or unfair, as I told you before, but, of course, neither I nor anyone wanted him to stop me.
«There is something that is not seen on TV when you compete: fear, insecurity and nerves»
It is also important to know how to lose.
And win. Both things have to be analyzed, because not only do you have to keep the victory, but you also have to keep in mind how you have won and how you have reached that moment, how the game went, how you solved the situations. There are many emotions when you compete that people don’t perceive on TV. There is fear, insecurity and nerves. Maybe the environment is making you uncomfortable, external things that happen with the public, and that do not depend on you. However, when we are in defeat we have to know how to ask ourselves what happened, why I lost, how I lost, what I have to do better or how I can work to change certain facets. Not just the mental part, but also the physical part.
Losing is not failure.
Of course not, both in life and in sports you win and lose. That’s how things are. In sport, you just have to know how to pull yourself together.
And you have to know how to enjoy success.
Yes, you have to enjoy it because I will tell you that many times we forget to enjoy it. Now I can admit it to you, now that I am sitting here and more relaxed. But athletes are very ambitious. When we get a medal we hardly enjoy that medal. We are already thinking about the next one. Or in the next tournament. Or the goal you set for yourself now. Or in the next dream you want to achieve. Many times we do not stop to enjoy it and we are not able to get all the juice out of it.
“I hope I’m wrong, but today, in Spain, there is no player who can achieve everything I have achieved”
When you were injured, people demanded recognition for you.
But what kind of recognition? Let’s see, in my case, the Spanish Badminton Federation tried to talk to the World Federation. It was news that they also wanted to give me a bronze medal. To me that didn’t seem fair. I am not the first athlete to be injured in the Olympic Games. There have already been many female players before and that has not been done. Why does something like this have to be done to me? I didn’t understand it and I didn’t want it either. If I had been consulted, I would have said no. When I go to the Olympic Games, I’m going to win gold. I’m not going to get a bronze medal out of shame, in quotes. So… an acknowledgment? The recognition, today, that I have brought is a medal that I could never imagine I could get: the affection of so many people who have empathized with me and have given value to everything behind me, because I always say that The medals are very nice, but they reflect very little of the effort and the path we have to travel to get one of the great ones.
Is there a future for badminton in Spain after Carolina Marín?
Today, I see it as complicated for there to be a player who achieves everything I have achieved. I would say no. I hope I’m wrong. I really want to make mistakes and I hope that in the near future there will be someone who achieves great things, but now it is very complicated.
