"I can't stop seeing the images of my injury at the Paris Olympics, I have no choice, they show them to me wherever I go, and what can I do? I have assimilated it, I have worked on it a lot," acknowledges Carolina Marín. Her pain in those tragic semifinals will come to mind when she is talked about in the future, but there must be other memories. Her record lists an Olympic gold, three World Championships, and seven European titles; her legacy goes beyond. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Spanish woman dominated Asia in badminton. In Huelva, her city, where she has been receiving tributes for days, she sits down with EL MUNDO to review seven moments of her already finished career.
1. A GIRL AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Before being known worldwide, in Spain, or even in her Huelva, Marín already stood out at the High-Performance Center in Madrid, where she moved at 14. Her coach Fernando Rivas recounted that she had an improper ambition.
"When I arrived in Madrid, I already wanted to be the best at everything, Olympic champion, number one, everything possible. I never settled and I think that's what pushed me up. I had doubts inside, but on the outside, I always appeared very confident. Already then, from the age of 15, I started working with psychologists to control fears, insecurities, nerves," recalls Marín, who won a bronze at a junior World Championship, made her Olympic debut in London 2012 at 19, and the following year won the Grand Prix Gold in London, the equivalent of a Grand Slam in tennis.
"With Fernando, we created our methodology, we were original, we made our own path. If I had tried to imitate what the Asians were doing, so many repetitions, I would have always been behind," she analyzes.
2. THE FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: THE MIRACLE IS BORN
"Her name echoes, Carolina María Marín Martín, fulfilling a purpose: History will no longer be able to forget it," began this newspaper's chronicle of an unlikely success. In 2014, in Copenhagen, the Spaniard lifted her first World Championship title and promised more. "At the beginning of that year, I passed the university entrance exam and decided to drop out of studies to focus on badminton. It's not easy to take that step, but now I know it was the right decision," points out Marín, who had already won her first European title months before. She had just turned 21 and went from being a rarity, a European in the elite, to being the most formidable rival.
"I would say everything changed in the second round of that 2014 World Championship. I beat the Chinese Wang Yihan, who was the world number three, and in Asia, they started looking at me differently. Until that moment, no one paid attention to me. From then on, every time I played, I had 10 Asian TV cameras around me. 'Watch out, here comes the Spanish girl.' They talked about my character. When I went to tournaments, it was already different for me. That respect was important to me; that's when I noticed that I had made a place for myself in badminton."
3. OLYMPIC CHAMPION, PHOTOS IN SPAIN
In her peak years, Marín controlled her sport like no one had done before. After two consecutive World Championships, came the gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and from the outside, it seemed like nothing went wrong. Although she remembers it differently.
"That gold was the best moment of my career. It was wonderful for me that my parents were there, but behind all my medals, there has always been anguish. Before the 2014 World Championship, I dislocated my shoulder and couldn't lift my arm; before the 2015 World Championship, I broke the fifth metatarsal in my right foot; and before the Rio Games, I had a problem with my sacrum. I spent four months without being able to train properly. I have had moments of happiness, but my path has never been a bed of roses," admits Marín, who says that gold changed her life.
4. THE THIRD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: THE BEST IN HISTORY?
"After those Games, it was the only time I felt a void. I had already won everything I dreamed of since I was a child; when I returned from Rio, I struggled to find motivation. I sat down with my coach and thought, 'What if I set out to be the best in history?'" narrates Marín, who triumphed after having triumphed, the hardest part.
In 2018, in Nanjing (China), she defeated the Indian Pusarla Sindhu in the final, the most important rival of her life, also a friend, and won her third World Championship. Until that moment, no player had won three titles, but the Spaniard believes that does not make her the best in history in her field.
5. "THE WORST MOMENT OF MY LIFE"
In 2019, with her complete record, Marín still saw a decade more of success ahead. She could compete in two or three more Olympic Games and five or six World Championships... How much more would she win? In reality, none. Her career came to a sudden halt after she first tore her right knee and then her left knee. Despite her efforts, she could not participate in the Tokyo 2020 Games, although that was not the toughest part. In early 2020, her father Gonzalo suffered a work accident and passed away months later.
"The passing of my father was the worst moment of my life, without a doubt. The two knee injuries I suffered before Paris were not as bad because I knew I could overcome them. I am proud to have overcome so many obstacles. Life has thrown big stones in my path, and I have always wanted to move forward. In the end, I have been privileged to have lived off my sport," she proclaims.
6. ONE 'CREC' AND IT'S ALL OVER
One day later, her rival, the Chinese He Bingjiao, revealed that she admires her. In the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Games, after recovering from everything, almost securing her second gold, Marín ruptured her right knee again, and the whole of Spain empathised with her tears.
"It was very cruel," she laments, adding, "I had done the toughest preparation of my entire career. Before starting, I didn't fully trust myself, but once in the semi-finals, I had a lot of confidence. Then I had to work a lot with my psychologist to understand it, to overcome it. It was tough, obviously." At the time of the injury, Marín was 31 years old, so she clung to one goal, a final goal. Huelva, her city, had secured the organization of the 2026 European Championship, and what better place to retire, on the court, with her people. But it wasn't meant to be.
After a 2025 of continuous pain, earlier this year she underwent surgery again, and playing again became a distant dream. "Until the last operation, walking was difficult, I limped. I felt pain from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. Now I have to be careful, I can't go out and run 10 kilometers, but I can walk, and that's already a life," she rejoices.
7. LIVING AFTER BADMINTON
"What am I going to do? I'm going to do everything," Marín summarises about what comes next. Since adolescence, her life has been about chasing a shuttlecock with her racket, and now the sun shines, the world is infinite, and there is nothing to stop her. "I want to try every sport I can because I only did badminton. I want to see the world, I didn't have free time. I want to try different things. These first weeks I will dedicate to my family and friends, to make up for the hours I haven't spent with them, and then I have an open future. I haven't decided anything," says Marín, who recently studied Physiotherapy at the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia and Dietetics and Nutrition at the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio through distance learning, but it seems unlikely that she will practice.
Her professional life hints at office work, wherever it may be. "Right now, I can live peacefully. I won't be sitting on my couch doing nothing, but I have been smart and invested wisely. I believe that with my retirement, I made the right decision. I had to prioritize my health. I am very young, and now it's time for me to live," she concludes.