Carolina Marn is reunited with the pleasant sensations. The champion from Huelva, after the enormous efforts made to recover from two serious knee injuries, has collected the prize she deserves. A few months after her last victory in a tournament, achieved at the European Games held in Krakow on July 2 of last year, she has managed to chain two consecutive BWF World Tour titles.
Last Sunday she won the Swiss Badminton Open after beating the Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung by 21-19, 13-21 and 22-20, in a duel in which they had to raise a championship point to finally win. A victory that was added to the one achieved on March 17 in Birmingham, a prestigious All England. He had not won two consecutive tournaments for three years.
“I feel very happy and proud of the work I have done, there is a lot of effort behind all this. Many times the work is only recognized when one gets on the podium and gets the medal, but it has been complicated. This is the path we want continue and go. I have put the focus of attention where we want to work, which is to continue improving the game, that mental part, and, above all, that physically I continue to find myself as I am today,” said the Andalusian in the presentation ceremony of the Madrid Masters.
His big goal, of course, is to be able to win a medal at the Paris Olympic Games. The injuries, in the end, prevented him from repeating the gold achieved in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 in an event, Tokyo, which was delayed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I have been in the tournament for three consecutive weeks, the first was in Paris, in the stadium where the Olympic Games are going to be played, and that defeat was quite hard in the sense that I did not expect it because the conditions were very good. Physically, I “I was feeling well, mentally I was prepared and it was a very hard blow,” explained one Carolina Marn.
The Huelva native highlighted that after that defeat, and before the All England, she had a very hard conversation with her coach, Fernando Rivas, which has been key to achieving new successes. “I cried a lot, I learned hard things, but I learned a lot and that is what has made me change the focus in each of the games I have played. The main themes were to bring out fears, insecurities. There was a fear that was quite hidden, which was failing myself. Nobody has given me anything,” said the Spaniard.
This year is beginning to look better than 2023, in which he began his path back to the top, after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2019 and suffering the same injury to his left knee in May 2021, in addition to a double meniscus tear.
Nadal’s example
Last year, taking as an example Rafael Nadal, capable of overcoming the most complicated moments, made herself the promise to recover her best version. Her successes, however, eluded her. To the victory achieved at the European Games in Krakow on July 2, only she could add first place on the podium at the Orleans Masters last April.
Now, his feelings are unbeatable. And his great dream is to be able to repeat the Olympic gold won almost eight years ago. “I don’t know what percentage of fullness I am at. What I know is that I will be at 100% by the time I arrive in Paris, of that I have no doubt. Today my knee is perfect,” he stated in statements made to Olympics.com .