the onubense Carolina Marín It showed itself “with desire” and “illusion” and “with more force”, after his viral process, to compete in the Madrid Spain Masters, the eighth test of the HSBC World Tour of Badminton and which is being held since Tuesday at the Gallur Municipal Sports Center of Madrid, with the current European champion “at the top of the world ‘top'”.
“I am much better, I have gone through an important viral process, I withdrew from the All England, I didn’t go to Switzerland. I still have a cough and runny nose, but we have remedied the fever, the bodily sensations as well, I am stronger,” said the badminton player at an event organized by Iberdrola, hosted by Carolina Iglesiason the day before the start of the competition in Gallur.
A feverish process caused the Huelva’s withdrawal from the All England two weeks ago and her absence at the Swiss Open last week. However, Marín does not want to miss the “special” date in the same venue where a year ago she was proclaimed European champion for the sixth time. “I compete here very little. That people come to see me makes me feel proud. There will be many ‘top’ world players”, valued.
“It’s going to be a beautiful week, the pavilion is going to be full. I’m excited, more than nervous. It’s been a year since I competed here, the first tournament after the knee injury. Competing in Spain makes me very excited”, He added about a tournament that will take place from this Friday until Sunday, April 2, and in which the Huelva, number one seed, will debut against the Danish Line Hojmark.
The woman from Huelva achieved her sixth European Championship at the end of April 2022 also in Gallur, where she expects very similar conditions. “The pavilion is the same as the European one, the stands are further away than normal, but this is getting used to, controlling the wheel well”he expressed on the track.
beat the pain
Despite coming back in style a little less than a year ago, it was “since December” when Marín felt that she could “cope” with the best players on the world circuit. “I have spent a year and a half quite complicated, I was in pain and it has been frustrating, especially the mental part”, confessed.
“I had no choice but to accept that pain that I did not want to have, I am very picky and it was frustrating. We have touched as much as possible and finally I have no pain. Now I enjoy badminton much more, I endure the training loads and I feel that I am at the top of the world’s ‘top'”he added about his current physical and mental state.
The Olympic champion in Rio 2016 acknowledged that “sometimes” she doubted herself, “especially” when she returned from her two serious injuries. “You doubt yourself, the process, you wonder if you will show a high level again, it is complicated. You never know if you’re going to be competitive again.” He stated, although he celebrated that it continues to be competitive, already “bearing in mind the objective of the Games” of Paris 2024, an event that he is already looking at “with illusion, desire and motivation”.
“It has been a different (Olympic) cycle, I got the motivation (after his injury prior to Tokyo 2020), because it was not such a long cycle. It has been three years and time has passed very quickly, there is only less than a year and a half left to be in other Games”, he applauded.
“I said I was going to win the gold medal”
Precisely, he recalled the “very special” gold that he won in Brazil, “the dream that any athlete has in a big way.” “I was very prepared and with a very clear objective, I was the only one who in the previous press conference said that I was going to win the gold medal. I was going to what I was going, to win that gold medal. I visualized important moments, doubts, fears, because we have emotions and we are not aliens,” he explained.
Finally, he addressed his role as a “reference” for badminton in Spain. “For me it is a pride,” she admitted. “It’s illusion, many times you have to be more careful with the things you do in front of the public”, he added, recounting that “sometimes you have to give up many things” as an elite athlete.
“I would like to go to a party or have a sparkling water, but I had to say no because the next day I have training. I have sacrificed things, but I feel very lucky, because I have seen that sacrifice rewarded”, she stressed, highlighting the support of her parents in all her decisions, despite the fact that badminton “has never been anything in Spain”.
