Carolina Marín went out to the supermarket on Wednesday. To buy water, although in his Huelva, where he lives in confinement at his mother’s house, “it is very good and you can drink from the tap”, he gracefully tells in a Skype meeting promoted by 123aCorrer del Santander, one of his sponsors. The two five-liter jugs are his weights. The same ones that a good part of the athletes now use, confined to their homes by the coronavirus, to keep fit. “Like milk cartons or bags of chickpeas,” adds jocosa At the same time, he laments at the sports leaders, who due to urgency or lack of foresight did not anticipate what was coming: “Maybe they could have helped us a little bit more.”
The triple world champion and current Olympic gold medalist has a pair of training machines in Huelva that his technician, Fernando Rivas, kept at home and sent him quickly with a carrier. And a stationary bike. And some rubbers. “But I haven’t picked up a racket or shuttle for three weeks and that is going to require some time to reconnect. I have already told Fernando: When we return it will be like the day I started with badminton! “, jump.
The fact is that you no longer need to run a lot. The rush to train came for the Games in July. But once postponed to the summer of 2021, it’s time to rest a bit. There is also no competition horizon. From the seven or eight hours of training at the CAR in Madrid, to a couple or three with a more relaxed physique. And the rest, reading, series, DIY and cooking. “I have seen the last season of Vikings, I am waiting for the second of the Casa de Papel, I have helped my mother to painting the patio chairs and cooking, which I love. But since I burn less, the sweet recipes are without sugar, with natural honey and oatmeal ”, details the Andalusian.
Carolina, doing DIY work at home.
Carolina was one of the last athletes to compete. As Spain prepared for closure, she experienced a very different situation in Birmingham, where she reached the semi-finals at the All England. In England no precautions were taken. She flew on Sunday March 15 to Seville,. and there his mother was waiting for him with the car. “I was impressed by the loneliness on the highway,” she says. “Everything is surreal, like a movie”, repeat four or five times. He went to Huelva because he had no other option. “The first mistake was closing the Blume, crazy. The CAR should have closed with the athletes inside ”, he complains again.
Suddenly, he’s been with his mother for three weeks. “Since I went to Madrid when I was 14 (he’s 26), it hasn’t been that long in a row!” But he has not dared to kiss her. And it hurts. But to mitigate the grief look ahead. In 2021 it will have Games and a month later, in September, the World Cup in Huelva. In a pavilion that bears his name. “It is going to be a very hard and beautiful year. In 2020 he came from an injury, I suffered a virus, a personal problem (his father’s hospitalization) … Many pebbles on the road that I can now remove. I am relieved with the postponement and will be able to recycle things. I’m sure another new Carolina will come out! “, predicts. For now, think about the first thing you will do when the confinement is over (“take a walk on the beach in Huelva”). Then come Tokyo and its World Cup in 2021. New challenges. Another Carolina.
