No one is exempt from suffering from mental health problems. Amassing the fortunes shared in media sports or achieving sporting glory does not exempt you either. Not even Carolina Marín is spared, an athlete who in her career has demonstrated her ability to overcome and her resilience in the face of adversity. The Huelva native, a badminton legend, announced this Saturday that she is leaving social networks for a while to “find happiness” after a last month of “maximum stress” and a “very high level of anxiety.”
“I have collapsed. It is time to think about myself. I am not at my best. I want to be happy and for that I must find happiness in many things,” the 32-year-old from Huelva, who is still recovering from the painful knee injury, both physical and mental, suffered in the semifinals of the Paris Games, when she was 11 points away from repeating an Olympic medal after her gold in Rio 2016, said in a video posted on the networks.
Marín, three-time world champion and seven-time European champion, in addition to having been number one in the world, has had three serious knee injuries. The first in his right leg, suffered on January 27, 2019 in the final of the Indonesian Masters, left him out for seven months and needed help from two psychologists. More complicated was the rupture of the cruciate ligament in his left knee, also with two broken menisci, suffered on May 28, 2021, two months after defending his Olympic title in Tokyo. He was also unable to play in the World Cup in Huelva in December 2021.
“It’s time to think about myself. I’m not at my best”
But, without a doubt, August 4, 2024 is a date that you will not forget. The Spaniard left the Parisian court crying at the Olympic Games after abandoning against the Chinese He Bingjao. He had fractured his ligaments and meniscus again, this time in his right knee. Almost a year and a half after that fateful day, the Spaniard is content with “finishing a workout” after thinking that “she would never pick up a badminton racket again.”
The Huelva native, still far from competing, has now made a decision that she already began to anticipate with a “reflection” in another video published on social networks. “This month I feel like my body is only asking for sugar. I’ve had a bad time, I don’t feel comfortable with myself, I don’t feel comfortable with my body. I look very different from when I trained eight hours a day. Now my body doesn’t allow me to train as much nor do I want to,” the Spaniard acknowledged on December 11, who “had a hard time sleeping because of the adrenaline.”
The athlete, awarded the Princess of Asturias award in 2024, thanked the support received before momentarily leaving the networks to take refuge with her family at Christmas. Until her last announcement, the Huelva native had indicated several times that the April European Championship in Huelva, in the pavilion that bears her name, was her “dream but not an obsession,” “one of the reasons” that encouraged her not to retire.
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“We will see each other in a few days with more strength,” Carolina Marín assured to conclude her message on the networks.
