MADRID, 24 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Spanish badminton player Carolina Marín, triple world champion and Olympic gold medalist in 2016, will receive the 2024 Princess of Asturias Sports Award this Friday in a ceremony to be held at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo.
The Huelva native, currently recovering from a new serious knee injury, was chosen the winner of this recognition on May 8 after the jury opted for her candidacy, proposed by Javier Parrondo, general director of Casa Asia, and highlight ” her extraordinary track record in a sport in which she has become an international reference.
The ruling recalled that day that Carolina Marín is the first and only non-Asian Olympic champion athlete in this discipline, “in addition to the best player in the history of badminton in Spain and one of the best in the world, an example of improvement, a source of inspiration and transmitter of values, on and off the track”.
“This is a recognition of my entire sporting career, of all the values of sacrifice, effort, dedication, resilience… We have overcome all the obstacles along the way and we have been fulfilling all the goals and dreams that I have set for myself,” he said. Marín after hearing the news of the granting of an award in which he succeeds the Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge in the list of winners.
A week ago and already assimilating a new setback in his sports career, he reiterated his excitement at receiving this award. “My hair stands on end, it’s a prize I’ve dreamed of, I really want to enjoy every minute in Oviedo,” said the Huelva native.
The Andalusian, 31 years old and who began practicing badminton when she was eight, now sees a brilliant career rewarded in a minority sport that she has helped popularize, and in which she was Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, three times world champion, in 2014, 2015 and 2018, champion at the European Games in Krakow 2023, and seven-time European champion, in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2002 and 2024.
A record that could be even greater if the misfortune of three serious knee injuries had not crossed his path between 2019 and 2024. The second made him miss the Tokyo Games and the most recent deprived him of last summer at the Paris 2024 Games. of what seemed like a second Olympic medal when she dominated China’s He Bing Jiao in her semifinal 21-14 and 10-6.
