Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 2, 2021: The Badminton World Federation announced on June 1 that Carolina Marin would not be defending her Olympic women’s singles crown in Tokyo due to a knee injury.
The Spaniard, who defeated India’s PV Sindhu in the Rio 2016 final to become the first European woman to win Olympic gold in badminton, confirmed the news in a post on her social media accounts.
“Marin suffered a similar injury on her right knee during the Indonesia Masters 2019 final but made a full recovery within eight months. She has won six HSBC BWF World Tour titles since her comeback. We wish Marin a speedy recovery,” BWF said in a statement.
In the Race to Tokyo BWF Olympic Qualification standings, Marin is ranked No. 4, behind China’s Chen Yufei, Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and third-ranked Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
The players ranked five to eight are: Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand), Rio 2016 silver medallist PV Sindhu (India) and An Se Young (Korea).