Olympic badminton champion Marin to miss Tokyo Games
Madrid, June 1: Spain’s Carolina Marin, the women’s Olympic badminton singles champion, will miss the Tokyo Games after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her left knee.
The 27-year-old will undergo surgery in the coming days after suffering the injury during a training session last week.
“This is another blow that I have to deal with, but I will certainly be back,” she wrote on social media.
The three-time world champion also ruptured the ACL in her right knee in 2019 and missed that year’s world championships.
Marin was crowned European champion for the fifth consecutive time last month and was viewed as one of Spain’s leading medal candidates in Japan.
She beat India’s PV Sindhu in the 2016 Olympic final in Rio.
JAPANESE OLYMPIC ATHLETES GET SHOTS
Japan started vaccinating Tokyo Games-bound athletes on Tuesday, the Japanese Olympic Committee said.
The vaccination of healthy athletes comes as only 2-3% of the general population in Japan has been fully vaccinated. Japanese Olympic Committee officials said about 200 athletes were vaccinated at a training center on the first day of the rollout.
Japanese Olympic Committee officials did not name any of the athletes. They also restricted coverage of the event, possibly fearing a public backlash.
Japanese Olympic Committee official Mitsugi Ogata said the vaccination of young athletes would
not affect distribution to the general population, including the elderly and medical workers.
“Vaccination operations for athletes are conducted in a different organization from those for the nation,” Ogata said.
The Tokyo Olympics are to open on July 23. The International Olympic Committee has said being vaccinated is not required for participating in the Olympics. However, the IOC has encouraged all athletes to be vaccinated.
IOC President Thomas Bach has said he believes more than 80% of the residents of the Olympic Village in Tokyo will be vaccinated.
Olympic officials say having athletes vaccinated will make the Japanese public feel increased safety in regard to holding the Olympics.
More than 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from more than 200 nations and territories are expected to enter Japan, in addition to tens of thousands of judges, officials, media and broadcasters.