 "Carolina Marin suffered an injury during her women's singles semi-final against China's He Bingjiao during the Paris Olympics. AP")
A devastated Rio 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin withdrew in tears from her badminton women’s singles semi-final on Sunday (August 4) after her right knee buckled in distressing scenes.
Marin, beat PV Sindhu in the process of winning gold in 2016, was on track to reach the final but collapsed mid-way through the second game against China’s He Bingjiao.
Coaches and He rushed to Marin’s side as she lay on the ground for several minutes, clutching her leg.
She eventually got up and walked off the court then resumed wearing a support but she could barely move, losing the next two points before collapsing to the ground and retiring.
Marin, the fourth seed at Paris 2024, won the first game 21-14 and was leading 10-6 in the second before leaving the court in tears.
Her coach, Fernando Rivas, told reporters that he had “no words to describe what happened”.
“Carolina knows that at an Olympic Games, you win or you lose,” he said. “But not this way.”
Three years ago, Marin was hot favourite for the title at Tokyo 2020 until she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury just months before the event – her second ACL injury.
“She was in pain, it’s a sensation that she already knew,” said Rivas.
“Now we have a lesson and we need to restart and try to understand what happened.”
Marin’s withdrawal drew a sympathetic response from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on social media.
“You are and always will be a champion,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “All of Spain is with you.”
Her opponent He progressed to the final, where she will play South Korean world number one An Se-young.
A clearly uncomfortable He told reporters that she felt “very sad” about what had happened.
“She was playing perfectly well and I was very passive,” said He. “I wasn’t thinking about the final at all.”
An beat Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 11-21, 21-13, 21-16 in the day’s earlier semi-final.