Early in 2019, badminton star Carolina Marin broke down in tears when she was forced to retire from the Indonesia Masters final with an injury. Seven months later, after underdoing surgery and rehab, she made it to another final, where she defeated world number one Tai Tzu Ying to retain the China Open title.
The bubbly Spaniard is the reigning Olympic champion, three-time World Champion and four-time European Champion. Marin also holds the record for retaining the World No. 1 title for a length of 66 weeks. She is the first ever female badminton athlete to have won three world championships.
On top of this, she’s a brand ambassador for La Liga, the top division for men’s football in the country.
In an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Marin said that she was learning to speak Mandarin as she often travels to China, and highlighted the difficulties for many people dedicated to sports that fall slightly outside the mainstream. “I’m a very fortunate person,” she said, but “the truth is that to be able to live from badminton you need to be a world champion.”
Spanish newspaper El Mundo says that there’s only one person in history who can make a claim to being better at badminton: Zhang Ning, who won two consecutive goldens in Athens in 2004 and Peking in 2008. Marin will challenge for her second Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020.
Tags: Badminton, Spain, Sport
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