Two Olympic Champions Bid Farewell to Tokyo

(ATR) The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics may have been beneficial for those needing to recover from injuries but for others the delay has meant disappointment.

The past week was opened and closed by two cases of iconic champions forced to undergo surgery and say goodbye to the Olympic dream. Both were winners at the Rio 2016 Games: Spanish badminton player Carolina Marin and Puerto Rican tennis player Monica Puig.

If the global pandemic had not forced the change in dates, these two women would have returned to focus the attention of their fans in the Olympic summer of 2020. To write their new stories, whatever they would be.

Last Tuesday, the Olympic champion, three-time world champion and five-time European champion in badminton, announced that she suffered a torn ligament and two meniscus in her left knee and on Thursday she went to the hospital operating table. She will try to recover as soon as possible because she wants to reappear at the World Championship in Huelva, Spain, at the end of the year.

Since her confinement by Covid-19, her coach Fernando Rivas, acknowledged that he was bitter about this moment because his disciple was on her way to another great performance in Tokyo and because she had come this far after a fearless task in the last two years.

Carolina Marin in January 2019 had a serious right knee injury, underwent surgery, and was away from the courts for seven and a half months. In record time, and after hours and hours of rehabilitation, 48 days after her return she was in the Top Ten of the world ranking, and with her mind fixed on the Tokyo Games, which would be postponed.

Then came her father's accident, the pandemic and the death of her father. The Madrid sports daily Marca recalls that after a slump at the end of 2020, she started 2021 with five championships, five finals and four titles: two in Thailand, champion of the Swiss Open and European champion for the fifth time.

Spanish sport was predicting her on the Olympic podium. But then came the injury.

This Sunday the sport of Puerto Rico had a shock. Monica Puig, the great surprise of tennis in Rio 2016, announced that she had undergone surgery on her right shoulder less than two months before the opening of the Games.

For several weeks, the pain had been increasing to the point that she found it difficult to comb her hair or brush her teeth. Her training time on the court was considerably reduced and she could barely perform a simple serve. The slightest exercise made him suffer.

According to what Puig told El Nuevo Dia, after medical consultations and additional tests, she made the difficult decision to have surgery on her right shoulder on May 25, which was announced days later. The procedure will keep her off the courts until the end of the year.

Another champion who has had to say goodbye to the postponed Olympic Games, Puig had well fixed in her mind and in her agenda the opening date of the summer event when they were to be held in 2020, while continuing to recover from an operation on her right elbow in October 2019.

Due to injuries and inactivity, Puig had dropped to 168th in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) world rankings but was confident of an invitation-only berth reserved for an Olympic or grand slam champion who missed out on a spot in the rankings.

Everyone was tipping her to be Puerto Rico's flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Tokyo. She herself dreamed of it.

But both Puig and Marin continue to bet on the future, despite adversity.

Homepage photo of Monica Puig: ATR

Written by Miguel Hernandez

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