The tangible elements of Carolina Marin's success are often objectionable to many badminton viewers. she screams and screams. She rushes her serve. She delays her serve. Other times, she staggers out to wipe her sweat from a very hard labor.
A scream pierces the elegant silence of the badminton court. There is no obvious zen mode to win matches while maintaining decorum, like the deep-breathing aggression of Far East Asian players or Saina Nehwal, but her calmness and clarity may prevail. No one has ever looked inside the brain, but the expressive face is just a decoy.
She doesn't bow her head like Intanon Ratchanok or Nozomi Okuhara, or keep a lid on her emotions like Chen Yufei or Tai Tsuyin. Her aggressive stomping doesn't disarm her like Akane Yamaguchi's, but once the storm of the match has subsided, both are able to light up the entire arena with their victorious smiles. And yes, her hairpins are conveniently tousled when she needs a breather. Also, she keeps beating PV Sindhu even after working out quite a bit of anger, so it gets a billion grumpy every time it happens.
There are a hundred reasons to dislike Marin's on-court temperament, but no badminton fan can help but grudgingly respect her. That would be 100 out of 100, regardless of her heroic battle with injury or her return as a gladiator in recent years. If the chances of her winning gold at the Paris Games are very slim, they will be united, even if only to make it to the podium. She is a brilliant one-off dazzling comet with a brilliant aura, because there is still no one like her in Spain.
Of course, the greatness started 10 years ago at the 2014 World Championships. That's when Marin won his first world title against Yihan Wang, Tai Tsuyin, PV Sindhu and Xuelui Li. It was a literal representation of the past, present and future of the 21-year-old's badminton greatness. Marin was genuinely afraid of Nehwal's mettle, her coach Fernando Rivas has often said, and although she whipped the Indian athlete for denying her a place at the British and World Championships, she was the 2015 champion. In Ship, she primarily used this indomitable warrior's presence to support and fine-tune her game. By 2016 Marin was an Olympic champion and won his third world title in 2018.
Indeed, Marin was backed by Spain's incredibly advanced sports science. And Rivas had a wizard coach. But between her two All England appearances in 2015 and 2024, the story of Caro the Courageous will be written.
Because she is incredibly loud and boisterous on the court, little attention tends to be paid to her accuracy and technical ability on the court. Her smashes are deadly and she scores kills with power and strength, there's no doubt about that. However, due to her speed and anticipation, her footwork is underrated. The pace has dropped a few clicks. But despite suffering two major injuries to her anterior cruciate ligament, she never shied away from her iconic lunge.
Her tight net dribble and control of the backhand shuttle before getting into rhythm with flicks and sickles alone requires 10,000 hours of practice. Her body defense remains undiminished and her agility is quietly honed. This deception lacks the dignity of a Ratchanok or Tai Tzu Ying, or the cleverness of a Se-young that makes people jump on the hype train or settle into a cult with a sigh. But her list work is a big part of how she sets points, her brain is in full swing, and she's able to set off her brain traps that don't get talked about often. can.
Being left-handed gives her some disorienting angles, but she doesn't really have many circuits to attack along with alternating flanks and left and right yo-yo opponents like Marin. She spends hours trying to maintain the momentum of her down-the-line smashes. The reason she gets caught so many times is when she tries too hard at the net with a burning confidence that she can finish the point there, and then she runs into an equally strong-willed opponent. If you do. Yamaguchi, Tsuyin, and Seyoung are much sharper when it comes to flicks and eyeballs, and Marin's own lateral and diagonal running is greatly reduced if he gets stuck in a corner.
But she has an indomitable spirit. And she's doubly committed to her fitness, ensuring that lunges aren't just a fad or restless due to old injury fears.
She missed her 2021 home World Championship, which will be held in the arena named after her, and did not even visit the Huelva Stadium for the celebrations in 2021. I'm close to badminton, but I don't play competitively.
She lost her father to the disease, spent months in the spotlight recovering after surgery, and even lost in the 2023 World Championship finals to the young and near-perfect Ahn Se-young, everyone's favorite. However, Marin she will be back in 2024 and she will be looking very formidable. The quality of women's badminton over the past 10 years has been so high that it does not include Marin, who was furious with the Fab Four she presided over due to her long absence due to injury. She will turn 31 in June this year, and no country will ignore her glaring threat and start planning for Paris.
It helps that Spain doesn't mess with the Uber Cup. That said, Marin overcame a difficult period without coach Fernando Rivas to complete another of his doctorates, develop the French badminton system, and learn to think for himself on the court. I've done things like that. She is a literal outlier, given that she has no precedent in Spain and her successor is unclear. Twenty years ago, a bright coach recognized her skill and somehow her tenacity and guided her to badminton and Rio gold. But it took months of patiently watching her leg heal and regain her strength in her game, which she did on her own. alone.
Carolina Marin is not invincible, but even in her prime she was far from invincible. However, she has an unwavering belief that she is destined to shine at the Olympics, and she will find a way to show up in Paris and shatter some of her dreams. And as always, the shouts of the mosh pit will overshadow the timeless brilliance of highly technical games from Beethoven to Black Sabbath, Britney to Beyoncé. The world can keep muttering about the noise, but it can't ignore the glare.
