Carolina Marín receives the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports

CArolina Marín, the brave Princess. It could be the title of a story whose last page would show the woman from Huelva collecting the Princess of Asturias Sports Award 2024 at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. The story, which would inspire boys and girls to work hard to make their dreams come true, would begin like this…

once upon a time a girl from Huelva who changed the ruffles of her flamenco dress for those of badminton when she was 8 years old. Since she was little she already showed a lot of character and determination. Her mother called her the McEnroe of badminton because he broke more than one racket after defeats. It was, and still is, so competitive that she didn’t even like losing at cards with her grandmother Carolinafrom which he inherited his fighting character. She had to raise four children alone. Caro He had in his own family the reference and the recipe for success.

At 14 years old he showed a courage unknown until then in a kingdom called Spain: I wanted to be number 1 in an unknown sport in our country and dreamed of winning everything: Olympic, World and European Games. No one in the kingdom had achieved it before but that did not stop her but rather encouraged her. She knew that she couldn’t do it alone and she soon learned that in In life you need to work as a team. That’s why he surrounded himself with the best.

Next to him he began to build the dream. Creating, innovating, not copying. She was willing to tear down the wall of the Eastern kingdom, the Asian one, which had been dominating the slopes with an iron fist for years.

That bravery led her to work tirelessly, train until you put your body and mind to the limitand the first conquests arrived in 2014 with the first of its eight European titles and the first, also, of the three world golds. No woman had achieved it before. Neither No non-Asian player had been an Olympic champion until she was crowned in the Rio 2016 Games.

Only injuries have slowed her down.

The girl ended up turning into a wolf that, as soon as it grabs its prey, it does not let go. Just the injuries-three bass on the knees- They have managed to stop it in recent years on the slopesbut not outside of them. Also there Caro He has shown his bravery, licking his wounds and coming back stronger again and again.

Today the Kings and the entire world applauded the Princess of Asturias of Sports, “an award that I have dreamed of for years“, as she herself acknowledged. She was the fourth to pick it up on stage, in an elegant black dress, an award with which succeeds marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge in the list of winners.

In the Campoamor stalls they applauded Toniher mother, as excited as her daughter, and two of his cousins They are like sisters. And all your teamthe ‘wolf pack’: Fernando Rivashis coach; Guillermo Sanchezhis physical trainer; Carlos de Santosyour physiotherapist; Maria Martinezhis psychologist; Ignacio Garciaits representative and Ignacio Paramioher press chief and who has shared every minute with her since she arrived in Oviedo on Tuesday. They know like no one else what he has had to suffer in recent years.

“Carolina was receiving a lot of love after her last injury but this week has been incredible. I’ve seen her happy and excited. I like to see her like this after what a bad time she’s had. He deserves it,” says Paramio, a direct witness of the mass bath that has taken place Caro these days, something common for her in Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Indonesia.

how they pray Machado’s verses that Joan Manuel Serrat, Princess of Asturias Award for the Artshe sang: “Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking.” And so, step by step, with courage and firmness, Carolina Marín opened a path unimaginable years ago for any non-Asian and he left his mark. The brave Princess also deserves to have a happy ending, like the one in the stories, and to be able to say goodbye to a badminton court with a smile and tears, but of happiness.