Badminton has been part of the Summer Olympics since 1992. Before 2016, every gold medallist in Women singles was an Asian. Well, this changed after Carolina Marin of Spain won the 2016 Rio Olympics, the first European woman to do so.
When we talk about Women’s badminton in India, the names that come to our mind immediately are Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. Similarly, Carolina Marin is the first badminton player from Spain to earn success in badminton.
A simple girl from Huelva, from the outskirts of Spain, rose to be the best in the World. Let me take you across her five best performances on the court so far.
2014 BWF World Championships
Marin’s first taste of success came at the 2014 World Championships held in Copenhagen. She was the ninth-seeded player and exceeded all expectations by defeating World no. 1 and Olympic gold medallist, Li Xuerui from China.
Marin recovered from dropping the opening game to complete an incredible 17-21, 21-17, 21-18 victory and earn her country its first-ever major title in the sport.
The 21-year-old became the first Spaniard and third European to win a gold at the World Championships. Moreover, she became the youngest European to win the World Championships ever.
2015 All England Open
Carolina Marin became the first Spanish player to win the prestigious All England Open title in 2015. In the finals, she defeated India’s Saina Nehwal by a score of 14-21, 21-16, 21-7 in 62 minutes. She achieved the World no. 1 rank after this title.
In the same year, she defended her BWF World Championships title and won five superseries titles. Consequently, she won the BWF Player of the year award for her spectacular performance in that season.
2016 Rio Olympics
Carolina Marin entered the Rio Olympics as the first seed full of confidence with eyes firmly set on the gold medal. She came into the Olympics as a two time defending World Champion. Moreover, Marin came back from a game down to defeat P V Sindhu 19-21, 21-12, 21-15, in 83 minutes and create history.
She thereby dented Asia’s Olympic supremacy in badminton. This was a historic moment for Spain and indeed Europe. Huelva even named a sports venue after her name.
2018 BWF World Championships
Marin went on to be crowned as a World Champion for a record three times, the first woman player to achieve this feat. Marin defeated her noble rival, PV Sindhu, 21-19, 21-10 in just 46 minutes to pocket her third World Championship gold medal. This was a strong comeback by Marin after a weak 2017 season due to injuries and poor form.
Previously, in 2015, Marin defended her 2014 World Championship title by beating Saina Nehwal of India 21-16, 21-19.
2019 China Open
Marin suffered a career-threatening ACL knee injury in the final of the Indonesia Masters earlier in January. She recovered within seven months and made a comeback at the Vietnam Open but suffered an opening-round exit.
However, Marin bounced back by defending her China Open title. She defeated Tai Tzu Ying, with a score of 14–21, 21–17, 21–18 in 65 minutes. In particular, she lost her last six meetings against the Taiwanese, Tai Tzu Ying. The 26 year old managed to outpace Tai Tzu Ying in longer rallies forcing her to make mistakes. Meanwhile,this was the Spaniard’s first title of the season.
By the end of the year, Marin deservedly broke into the world top 10 of BWF women’s singles ranking.
Final Thoughts
According to the recent BWF ranking list, Marin is ranked World no. 6 with 76,210 points. Likewise, in the BWF Olympic Qualification list, she is ranked World no. 5. It would be interesting to see if the Spaniard would defend her 2016 Rio Olympics title at the Tokyo Olympics.
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