Carolina María Marín Martín (born 15 June 1993) is a Spanish badminton player.
She is an Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion, seven-time European Champion, and the former World's No. 1 in BWF rankings for the women's singles discipline, holding the World No. 1 title for 66 weeks.
2009
In 2009, she became the first Spanish badminton player to win a silver medal first, at the European Junior Championships, and also in the same year, won the gold medal at the European U-17 Junior Championships.
She won her first major title at the Irish International tournament coming through the qualification stage and beating the Dutch player Rachel van Cutsen in the final in the rubber game.
2011
In 2011, she alongside her teammate, Beatriz Corrales, made history for the Spanish badminton, after placing two representatives of Spain in the final at the continental European Junior Championships held in Vantaa, Finland, and Marín grabbed the gold medal.
She also competed at the World Junior Championships in Taipei, reaching the semi-finals, but lost to Elisabeth Purwaningtyas of Indonesia and settled for the bronze medal.
2013
In 2013, she became the first Spanish badminton player to win a Grand Prix Gold title after winning the London Grand Prix Gold.
In August, Marín played for the Bangalore-based team Banga Beats in the inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League (IBL).
In April, she won her first European Championships title.
2014
She has become the World Champion in the women's singles three times, winning in 2014, 2015, and 2018, thereby becoming the first-ever female badminton athlete to have achieved this feat.
She has also consecutively won the European Championships title six times, in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022.
On 31 August 2014, she defeated Li Xuerui of China in the World Championships women's singles final and became the first Spaniard to win a World Championship title and the third European female player to achieve the gold medal, after Lene Køppen (1977) and Camilla Martin (1999).
At the age of 21, she became the youngest European that won the World Championships ever.
2015
In 2015, she won the All England Open, her first Superseries Premier title in her first Superseries Premier final after defeating Saina Nehwal in the final with score 16–21, 21–14, 21–7.
The title propelled her to rank number 4 in the world ranking and, for the first time, no. 1 in the Superseries standing.
At India Open, she had the chance to unseat Li Xuerui as the new world no. 1, however, she narrowly lost to Thai prodigy Ratchanok Intanon in a close three games at the semi-finals stage.
She rose to a career-high as world no. 2 in the world ranking on 2 April.
On 5 April, Marín won her second straight Superseries Premier title, beating Olympic champion Li Xuerui for the second consecutive time at the 2015 Malaysia Open with a score of 19–21, 21–19, 21–17.
In August, she defended her title at the World Championship by beating Saina Nehwal of India in 21–16, 21–19.
2015 was the golden year for Marín, where in addition to defending the World Championships title, she also won other Superseries titles such as the Australian Open, French Open, and Hong Kong Open.
In August, she represented her country at the Rio Olympics.
She arrived at Rio as the number one seed and won a gold medal by beating India's P. V. Sindhu in the women's singles final with a score of 19–21, 21–12, 21–15.
She made history by becoming the first non-Asian to win the Olympic badminton women's singles gold medal.
An indoor arena in Huelva is named after her honour, with Marín herself attending the inauguration.
2016
She won the Olympics gold medal in women's singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Marín was appointed as the brand ambassador of football major LaLiga and Meliá Hotels International for its promotion in other countries.
Carolina Marín in her earlier childhood was a keen Flamenco dancer.
She learned of badminton when a friend introduced her to the sport.
She fell in love with the sport, and decided to stop dancing and play badminton wholeheartedly.
At the age of eight, she started playing badminton at the IES La Orden in Huelva.
She says she had to leave her hometown and her family at a very young age to travel all the way to Madrid for training at National Centre.
2017
In 2017, Marín won the Japan Open Superseries title after beating He Bingjiao of China in the final, winning a Superseries title after almost two years.
At the Hong Kong Open, which took place in late November, Marín retired to Michelle Li, losing 21–19, 13–21, 8–11, due to a hip injury that she sustained during the match.
Marín later announced on Twitter and Instagram that, due to her hip injury, she would not be participating in the season-ending Dubai World Superseries Finals.
2018
On 29 April 2018, she won her fourth consecutive European Championships title in her home soil Huelva, Spain, by beating Evgeniya Kosetskaya with a score of 21–15, 21–7 in the final.
On 5 August, she won the title in the World Championships by defeating P. V. Sindhu of India in straight games 21–19, 21–10, making her the first female player in history to win three World Championships titles.
In September, she won World Tour titles at the Japan and China Open.
2019
Marín began her 2019 season with a runner-up effort at the Malaysia Masters, where she lost to Ratchanok Intanon in straight games.
On 27 January, Marín suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during the Indonesia Masters final against Saina Nehwal, when she was 10–3 ahead in the first games.
Marín subsequently retired from the match and underwent the ACL reconstruction surgery as soon as she was flown back to Madrid the same day.
