“I can because I believe I can” is Carolina Marin’s motto, and that’s just what her approach to the 2022 European Championships is.
The five-time defending champion, out for 11 months due to a knee injury, finally returned to a competitive badminton court yesterday in Madrid, where she cleared the first round with ease.
Marin defeated Czech challenger Katerina Tomalova 21-10 21-6 in 30 minutes.
Asked if she can win her sixth consecutive gold, the 28-year-old said: “Of course I think I can do it. It all comes down to what I do on court. My main goal is to just get back on court, feel good and think about what I have to do in every game against any player.”
📸 🄵🄾🅃🄾🄳🄴🄻 🄳🄸🄰 / 🄿🄷🄾🅃🄾 🄾🄵 🅃🄷🄴 🄳🄰🅈 📸
🏸🇪🇺 #Madrid22 #EC22 pic.twitter.com/mj26yTX6xb
— IBIZA 2024 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (@Ibiza2024_EJC) April 26, 2022
The atmosphere has been lively in Madrid, something many of the players have praised and the energy of the crowd peaked when Marin made her much-awaited comeback.
“I cannot describe with words how I feel. It’s always special to play at home, even more so when it’s my first match and comeback,” Marin added.
“Really happy to be back, I want to enjoy being on court and that´s it. I just say to myself, get the victory today and then one more tomorrow.”
It’s been 11 months of recovery and preparing to get back on the routine of travelling around the world to fight for wins. Marin has also used the period to improve and add to her game.
“We have years full of tournaments, it´s tough to have the time to just prepare some new techniques,” said the 2016 Olympic champion.
“That’s why we used my injury to train new things and improve what I needed to improve. I just want to play this week using all the things I’ve been training at home for almost a year.”
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