Carolina Marín, with her recently renewed title of Badminton European Champion, arrived to the Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia (UCAM), where she is currently studying Physiotherapy Degree, to give a talk and take part in a Practice Session with Sport Faculty students. The player from Huelva (Spain) talked about her future goals and the keys that have led her to triumph in a sport previously controlled by Asian players.

Before her talk with the students she answered the journalists’ questions and talked about her sensations about her first visit to the Campus of Los Jerónimos: “I am really impressed with UCAM facilities. My involvement with the University is really positive because it allows me for studying, even if it is little by little, due to my training rhythm and competitions. I expect to finish the Physiotherapy Degree in a few years”…”The possibility of studying would have been impossible without the joint work of UCAM and Spanish Olympic Committee: all sport women and men are really grateful to the Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia for its support and backing”…”It is really important that a University undertakes to do this work, because it is very complicated for elite sport people combining study and training timetables.

After the Gold Medal in Rio 2016, Carolina has already in mind her future goals, and as usual, ambition and attitude for winning are her personal signature: “I want to become the best player in history and for that I still have to get two World Championships more and one more edition of Olympic Games, hence both me and my team are now concentrated in those goals.

The first step to reach that great goal will arrive next summer with the new World Championship: “I have important championships in Indonesia and Australia at the end of June and the main goal is World Championship in Scotland”. A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable listening to a Spanish player say that her goal was to win her third World Badminton Championship (BWF World Championship). Due to all above mentioned, Carolina is in the list of sport women that have opened a new path in Spanish sport: “I feel pioneer in this sport and proud and happy to pave the way and show Spanish people what badminton is so that we can have more champions in future. 

While those new champions arrive to this sport, there is an increase in the number of people that practice badminton in our country. “We must go on working a lot to promote it but, yes, there are more and more people that practice it. When I see children playing with their parents is what really makes me most happy”.

Mental preparation, key to win matches

During the talk to the students Carolina answered all kind students’ questions. Many of them were directed to one of the most highlighted aspects of her profile as sport woman, her psychological preparation: “It is very important to have a mental preparation for each match and championship. If I start thinking too much about the significance of what I do, I lose concentration. My play is attacking and therefore I must show myself and the rival that I have got the control of each point.

To finish the talk, she offered a Practice Session during which she played some points with the students of the University and gave some notions of badminton, a sport that thanks to her is more and more well-known in Spain.

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