Carolina Marín spends much of the year in Asia. The Olympic gold medalist and three-time badminton world champion is a star there. Her popularity in countries like China, Indonesia and Malaysia is evident every time she sets foot on their territory. Queues of fans to take pictures with her before and after each tournament, crazy fans shouting her name, crowds gathering at the door of each of her hotels... “At first it was very strange, especially when I was a stranger here, but there They asked me for photos in the pavilions,” Marín explains to La Vanguardia.
Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the world with more than 220 million practitioners, and Asia concentrates 80% of its players. When Carolina Marín won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, she was the first athlete born outside of Asia to achieve it and from here on, her popularity in these countries has only grown. In 2014, when the Indonesian Sports Minister visited Madrid, one of his first requests was to meet with Marín. “It was a tremendous honor and also a great surprise. For us, Indonesia is like our second home, because the people there have a way of being quite similar to ours and because they have an incredible passion for badminton. That has made the bond with that country very special,” recalls the champion.
The fan phenomenon that Huelva unleashes in Asian countries is such that it even has a specific person to manage its Chinese networks. Marín has more than 275,000 followers on Weibo, considered the Chinese Twitter, and another 25,000 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. In that country, social networks such as Instagram are prohibited, in which 30% of the Andalusian's followers are from India and another 19% come from Indonesia.
Its great impact in this region has made Carolina Marín the best ambassador of Spain, and there are many brands that have wanted to take advantage of its pull to enter the Asian market. When LaLiga decided to open an office in Singapore in 2017, it did so with the help of the Spanish athlete, who has been the image of other events in Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Indonesia. Why so much expectation? “I imagine that due to the fact that she has achieved so many successes, and to this is added that she has an exotic touch. It's like someone from Indonesia or China is world number 1 in tennis, I guess,” she says humbly.
She was also godmother of the first direct flight that connected Madrid and Shanghai with Iberia and as an ambassador of the Community of Madrid. She works with the sports equipment brand Yonex or with companies such as Meliá, Zumosol or the Chinese real estate company Bi Yuan. The last one to choose Carolina Marín as the image to enter Asia has been Helios. The Spanish athlete is the image of the firm's new range of spreadable fruits. “The Asian consumer, especially the Chinese, increasingly values Spanish products because they associate them with high quality and great naturalness,” explains Iker Asolo, marketing manager of the Helios Group, who defines her as “the perfect ambassador for both markets.” ”. The choice of the three-time badminton world champion responds to three reasons. On the one hand, because of the “enormous notoriety that she has for Asian consumers, since she is recognized as one of the best badminton players in the world.” On the other hand, because of her origin: “she is a person with deep roots in her origin, Huelva, where the strawberries and blueberries that we use in Helios for Purafruta come from.” And thirdly, because Marín “is strongly associated with the Spain brand for the Asian consumer.” "If we had chosen a local profile from Asia, we would have lost this anchor with the positive values associated with the Spanish origin."
Her great notoriety in our country and in Asia make her “the ideal ambassador for both markets,” says Asolo. “The support I have received in Asia has always been incredible,” Marín corroborates: “Everywhere I go, everyone recognizes me.” An impact that she also uses to help. For years she has donated 1% of her prize money to the Solibad association, which has aid programs for young people in 16 countries. They provide them with material for their badminton teams, but they also offer aid for schooling in the regions with the most difficulties.
The Andalusian is the only European in the top ten of the badminton world rankings. Gold in Rio and three-time World Champion (2014, 2015 and 2018), she is returning to Spain after being eliminated in the first round of the China Masters against the Vietnamese Nguyen. On her kit at the tournament she sported the logos of Banco Santander, Movistar, LaLiga, Yonex and Iberdrola. Brands that recognize the doors that the athlete, whose goal now is to compete in the Paris Olympic Games next summer after missing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games due to injury, can open for them in Asia.
