Carolina Marin steps back to heal, a brave move in a relentless career

This surgery wasn’t a realignment of the meniscus aimed at launching a comeback. Her health and everyday life was under threat and needed fixing. Marin had been away from the circuit for a long time, a period in which Korean An Se-young has owned the throne, and looks set for a long reign. But in her non-retirement, in her literal fight against the fading of the light, in that tiny door opening, was a gentle grace that at once showed how cruel and capricious sport could be, but also how humans become legends pushing the barriers of pain and whims of fate.

If an official retirement is on the horizon – it will be badminton’s most titanic battle finally easing into acceptance that would have weighed heaviest only on her heart. Nobody else in this sport has been dragged down by pain and tears, so many times, to return strongly, and then get pulled down again – only for trying hard. Many gave up after the first sound of the knee cracking, Marin’s wobbled and collapsed at not just the grandest arena of Istora, but again at the greatest stage of the Olympics – Paris 2024. Both times, she was on the cusp of regaining that high from the Rio Games, where shuttlers are walking inches above the ground, their dominance blazing and bright.

And then the knee caves in, and you literally crumple to the ground. The stretchering or wheeling off, is tears shed under bright lights, processing how, why, why me, all at the same time. At Paris, on the brink of entering the final, she lost a medal. The only other gut wrench that constricts the throat is Vinesh Phogat being denied her own final. Both champions who raised sport to art, crying fat tears on the canvas – and there was no podium picture to take home. Perhaps, people’s memory is the medal.

Marin, now 32, had already undergone ACL surgeries on both knees, bowed out from the Tour and was silently, cagily attempting to put together what could’ve been a farewell stint on court. Perhaps the trouble was that a personality like Carolina Marin could never ration her intensity, get pragmatic about changing her playing style, and change her ethos. With a game that relied so much on speed and aggression, there wasn’t a lower gear to operate on. Once on court, she had to retrieve every shuttle, and find impossible ways to fly to whack at a return, and none of this was going to be kind on the knees.

Till that last match at Paris against He Bingjiao, Marin did not compromise on her playing style. It cost her a medal that would’ve put her in one dressed-up statistical corner or history, or another. But the relentless shuttler, with a pugilist’s mindset, and stubborn as a bull, was always about all-or-nothing.

Marin wobbled and collapsed at not just the grandest arena of Istora, but again at the greatest stage of the Olympics – Paris 2024.. (Reuters Photo)

It was slightly comforting that she would finally put her health above everything else, because there lurked in her the sky-diver’s gallant pluck, which could push her towards chasing excellence over and over again. To think that nobody from Spain had even dreamt of winning at badminton – and here was a lady who just wouldn’t stop trying. There was no system, no infrastructure, no legacy or history, nor any desperation to keep trying. This was an individual – and perhaps her coach and family – deeply driven, and at once the determination of the matador and the bull, combined.

Perhaps, she screamed and dinned all by herself when she played, because she sensed she was fighting it all, utterly alone – Asia’s waves and waves of talents, their sturdy backing of their champions, their natural flair and coached calculations. Nothing daunted her, and she dusted herself, kept her ACL appointments, rehabbed, trained all over again, gulped down tears, pasted a glorious smile, and fought like she would tear her opponent apart. Only the jealous continued to be annoyed by her yells. The numbers of those inspired by her mere trying – not contingent on a medal – would be a billion.

She is 4-6 against An Se-young, her only negative (-2) head to head besides against Ratchanok (6-7). The Korean has an equal win-loss record against only two players – Chen Yufei (14-14) and Saina Nehwal (1-1). But of the non-Koreans, Marin pushed her best, and perhaps collapsed trying. The fight will remain etched in memory, as will a What-if on the Paris final.

As Marin finally winds down, missed by most with the All England the closest she came to having a home crowd, and the women’s singles scene looking drab with one shuttler dominating, there is appreciation of one Huelva’ride. Her contemporaries were greats themselves, which makes her 3 World titles, and 10 Tour triumphs (she lost 12), besides Rio, memorable.

Many reels of victories inspire – her 2016 will too. But her unfinished matches and subsequent comebacks, though not captured on video montages, are one of the sport’s greatest stories. The woman was cinema.