After an eight-year wait, Mexican badminton player Luis Ramon Garrido finally made his Olympic debut on Sunday in Paris. Garrido's road to Paris has been long, winding, and often painful — literately. He missed the Rio Olympics due to a viral kidney disease and has since undergone eight knee surgeries to get back on to the court.
However, meeting his idol, double Olympic men's singles champion Lin Dan on Friday in the Olympic Village was a special reward for his perseverance and determination. He even grabbed a selfie with "Super Dan" on the fringes of the Olympic flame relay.
"I just saw him there, so I just told him that he's my idol. I remember him since I was a little kid watching him play at the Olympics in 2008. He was just unreal. He's my favorite ever badminton player," Garrido explained.
The encounter took Garrido back to 2015, when he was among the world's top 50 players and had secured his spot in Rio after a promising junior career.
He was very close to appearing alongside Lin in Rio, however, a sudden illness struck, an illness which almost killed him.
"I almost lost my life in 2015," the 28-year-old said. "I got an illness called rhabdomyolysis. It's like I was losing my kidneys. They were not processing everything, so I was peeing blood every day.
"I think, at one point, it was 50-50, because if you don't take care exactly the way you have to take care of this illness, it just goes really fast. The doctor told me that if I didn't attend to it properly, in the next couple of days, it would maybe have been the end."
Garrido relocated to Spain for four months for specialized treatment and, after a long journey back to health, he made a triumphant return to the court.
He picked up the sport at an early age from his father, a former professional soccer player who, after hanging up his boots, transitioned to developing sports equipment — including badminton rackets — for a university in Monterrey.
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"We started playing in an old gym in the university, just for fun," the Mexican said. "I was practically still a baby, playing badminton in a diaper. I just got addicted to hitting that shuttle."
However, after finally returning from his illness, at the beginning of 2018, Garrido's career faced another demoralizing body blow, when he suffered the first of several knee injuries.
"I destroyed my right knee playing in a tournament," he recalled. "I destroyed everything: the patella, tendon, knee ligaments, and both menisci."
Over the next four years, he underwent eight knee surgeries — five on the right, three on the left.
"It was quite painful. Not only physically, but also mentally," he recalled. "I thought about retiring in 2022, but I couldn't get the Olympic dream out of my mind. I know I'm not going to win a medal, and this is not to be pessimistic or negative; it's just the truth.
"With all the injuries I've had and all the time I've lost, I know my position; I know who I am. I know I'm going to fight, and even if I have to give my life, I will compete," he said.
Garrido revealed that he considered retiring after the Olympics, but now, he knows that he will continue.
"I think I have more energy, more fuel to keep going, even though my body sometimes feels a little tired. But, I believe that I can still do it, and I think I will be here for a long time, and hopefully I can start playing in the big tournaments."
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No matter the results in Paris, the world No 67 is thankful he chose to keep playing. "It doesn't matter who is in front of me. Considering everything, it's just a dream to be here."
OIS - China Daily
