Carolina Marin

Carolina Maria Marin Martin was born on 15th June 1993. She is a professional Spanish badminton player. She is a three-time world champion and 4-time European champion. She is also a former world number 1 in the BWf women’s rankings. She is considered to be one of the greats in the women’s badminton field.

Background

Carolina was born to Gonzalo Marin(father) and Toni Martin(mother) in the city of Huelva which was located in the southwestern part of Spain. Her mother was a flamenco dancer and naturally, the Spaniard also wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps, until life had another plan for her. She started playing badminton at an early age at the La Orden badminton club in Huelva. She was coached by Fernando Rivas where she developed her left-handed playing style.

Debut

The Spaniard’s international debut was in the Brussel’s international U15 tournament in 2005.

Rise to Glory

After becoming a professional in 2007 her career turning point when she won Gold at the 2009 European U17 Championships. She also won a Silver in the same year at the U19 European Championship. She was the first Spanish badminton player to win a Grand Prix Gold title at the 2013 London Grand Prix Gold.

Career Achievements

In 2014 she was a European Championships gold medalist and won the Gold at the World Championships.

In the year 2015 she became a World Championships Gold Medalist and in 2016 she again won Gold at the European Championships and won the bronze at the European women’s team championships.

Her greatest achievement is winning the gold medal at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil by beating Saina Nehwal. In her honour, an indoor stadium was named after her back in her hometown, Huelva and she herself inaugurated it.

In 2017 she beat He Bengjiao of Japan to win the Japan open super series title which was her first super series title in two years.

On 29th April 2018, she won her fourth European championship title in a row by beating Evgeniya Kosetskaya at the 2018 Huelva European Championships. She also claimed the title at the Badminton world championships by defeating P.V Sindhu.

Honours

Carolina won the “Promise of Sports Award” in 2009 and 2010.

Best Female Athlete in 2010.

She was crowned number one in 2016.

She holds a career record of 331 wins in women’s singles tournaments and an unparalleled 28 career titles.

At the age of 21, she became the youngest player ever to win a European Championship title.

She became the first Spaniard to win the World Championship title and the third European female player to ever win the gold medal after Lene Koppen and Camilla Martin.

She made history by winning three World Championships titles and being the only female badminton player to do so.

Low Points

Carolina was disappointed after she bowed out of the 2012 London Olympics, as a result, she got a tattoo on her left wrist to remind her of the defeat and as a result, she won her first Olympic gold at Rio in 2016.

In 2017 at the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open Carolina suffered a hip injury during the match and as a result, she retired to Michelle Li. She later announced on social media that she would not be participating in the Dubai World series due to the injury.

Club Career

Though the world champion spent most of her years playing for the Spanish national team she also took part in few club competitions. She participated in the inaugural edition of the 2013 Indian badminton league. She played for the Bangalore based team called Banga Beats where she put up a stellar performance.