After a serious injury, Marin still has ambitions to win Olympic gold again

Jakarta, Beritasatu.com – Spanish women's singles Carolina Marin still has the ambition to win the Olympic title again. He is aiming for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. In recent years, he has suffered serious injuries which have resulted in him missing from various tournaments.

“My biggest desire is to win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics,” said Marin, Sunday (31/3/2024).

The gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics emphasized that sportsmanship and perseverance are his main assets in achieving this target. Moreover, the former world number one player has suffered from two serious knee injuries for years with a recovery period that took quite a long time.

“I don't know what my percentage (of appearances) is so far. What I am sure of, is that I will be 100 percent for the Olympics, I have no doubt about it,” said Carolina Marin.

This feeling of confidence has grown even more after winning a number of BWF tour titles this year, including the Super 1000 All England Open 2024 tournament, which is one of the most prestigious badminton championships in the world.

Marín explains the process that took him from pain and suffering, to new hope and success.

“What I did mainly was work hard on the mental aspect, believing in myself and regaining confidence in doing good training,” said Carolina Marin.

The last five years, Marin has had a fluctuating chart. Since the 2019 Indonesia Masters final, when she tore ligaments in her right knee, Carolina Marín has faced a big challenge in recovering to return to her best level.

Two years after the injury and still in the process of recovering physically and in confidence, he suffered another more serious injury to his other knee. He not only tore his cruciate ligament, but also both meniscus.

These setbacks are understandably difficult to overcome mentally. His injury in 2021 kept him out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In 2022, the 30-year-old badminton player added a psychologist to his support team.

“The aspect I work on the most on a psychological level is my emotions, letting out emotions. “After working a lot with my psychologist, both off the field and on the field, seeing what things can make me feel comfortable,” said Carolina Marin.

The Huelva-born athlete believes that athletes often ignore mental health aspects. But for him, this is one of the fundamental parts of the body.

“We no longer only talk about badminton, but also about other things off the court. “Most importantly, believing in myself and regaining self-confidence has been the most important key for me,” he said.