Carolina Marin supported by crowd after injury devastation
The capacity crowd applauded over the cries of Marin, standing up one by one in sympathy, while He headed over too, crouching down beside her injured rival.
Medical teams were soon on hand, joining the people around Marin who was on her hands and knees. The emotional pain seemed more difficult to take than the physical.
The applause continued, the sound akin to rain splattering on a roof, accompanying the tears that continued to flow.
The words finally spoken to her coach we could not hear but the gesture of Fernando Rivas gently cradling Marin’s head spoke volumes.
The Iberian superstar eventually got up to a standing ovation and walked out on her own, refusing the wheelchair as she left.
Later, Rivas would reveal what was said: “She looked at me and said, ‘It’s broken.’ It was as soon as she fell to the ground. It is a feeling that she already knows so, if she told me that, it is true. Now we have to evaluate the injury, we have to run the usual tests, be calm and accept what it is.
“Carolina feels devastated. I think it was super cruel, very unfair, and the truth is that we have no words. We have no words to describe how it feels because, at the level she was, how she was getting better throughout the competition, and with the determination she was playing these semi-finals… The truth is, this is very hard.
“It is not fair, I think Carolina deserved to finish the Olympic Games, winning or losing, but on the court.”
The reigning Olympic champion in the men’s edition, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen who progressed to the final from his own match shortly afterwards, was also concerned for the Spaniard: “I feel for Marin. She’s a friend of mine and she’s such an amazing opponent. She was winning the match and to see her go down like that was obviously very, very hard for me personally.
“So it was hard to block it out when I was warming up and I just hope that I can give her a hug and some encouragement when I see her next time because she was definitely supposed to win that match.”