Paris, Aug 6 (IANS): Spanish shuttler Carolina Marin vowed to come back stronger after a knee injury forced her to retire from the women's singles semifinal against China's He Bing Jiao in the badminton competition at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Marin had won the first game 21-14 and was leading 10-6 in the second before she faced a devastating blow when a fall aggravated her knee injury. The impairment forced the three-time World Champion to retire after losing another two points.
He Bing Jiao lost the final against South Korea's An Se-young 21-13, 21-16 in straight games to settle with a silver medal. However, the Chinese shuttler held Spain's flag pin while receiving her medal on the podium to pay tribute to Marin.
The 31-year-old Marin thanked her supporters for the support and also, He Bing Jiao for her kind gesture on the podium.
"On Sunday, I suffered one of the hardest moments of my life. A few days later I think I'll need more time to assimilate it. I suppose life makes us deal with situations that we don't want to live and that nobody deserves, but we have to accept it and handle it in the best possible way," the Rio 2016 Olympics gold medallist wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.
"I have never received so much love, it has been immeasurable. But I'm sure you'll let me single out one person: I wished He Bing Jiao all the best in the final because sportsmanship was above all else. But the moment on the podium is one of the loveliest gestures anyone has ever made to me and I will always be incredibly grateful to her," she said in her post written in Spanish.
Marin further highlighted the cruelty of sport and said even after putting in all the efforts, athletes miss out on fulfilling their dreams.
"I wouldn't like to finish without remembering that sometimes we use sport as an example for life. And this was also the case on Sunday: if you work hard and try harder than anyone else to achieve your dreams, they can come true. But it doesn't always happen," the Spanish shuttler's post read.
"I fulfilled the dreams of the little girl who left Huelva a long time ago, but I had others to fulfill. It doesn't matter, life goes on and I will keep on looking for my dreams. Now another journey begins, but I already know it...," it added.