Carolina Marín in HoM, how does technology help an Olympic champion?

Can technology build an Olympic champion? Where does data analysis end and where does the human factor begin? How can technology help improve your athletic performance?

These are some of the questions that Carolina Marín, Olympic badminton champion and a reference in Spanish sports, answers in the latest episode of HoM: Humano o Máquina. The athlete from Huelva, who has revolutionized the history of badminton, sits down with Juan Marcelo Gaitán and Mafran Martínez to talk about how she has used technology to improve on the court and how the human factor is always ahead.

The competitive advantage of Carolina Marín

Badminton has traditionally been a sport dominated by Asian athletes. A Spanish person reaching the top of the world rankings, didn’t seem realistic. However, Carolina Marín with hard work, effort and dedication, has made it possible.

A competitive advantage was added to this daily sacrifice and it allowed Carolina and her team to stay one step ahead: technological innovation. "In Asia, they don't use this innovative data technique; the time investment that my team has made in that strategy hasn't been made by others”.

Carolina has been monitored down to the millimeter for years. "I have considered myself, in quotes, a lab rat; they have done many tests, it’s trial and error", she confesses with a laugh. With this strategy, she tells us that while match analysis used to require 3 or 4 hours from her coach, today, with AI, it can be done in just 5 minutes.

Technology hasn’t only been useful for her to know her opponent in depth and anticipate their movements on the court. The data analysis and monitoring she was subjected to allowed her to measure her physical load, enabling her to know when to push harder in her training and, very likely, sparing her from serious injuries.

The human factor: the main pillar of success

Despite being a staunch defender of these technologies, Carolina Marín doesn’t believe machines will replace the human factor. When asked by Juan Marcelo who will win this battle, Carolina doesn’t hesitate: "Technology is created by human beings; the human being is who will win because technology depends on them".

For the Olympic champion, technological tools are a great resource and a strategy that gives her a competitive advantage, but the main pillar of success is the human factor, based on two values:

1. Trust. "If my team told me something based on the results of the data analysis, I believed them". Carolina believed in the analytics, but above all, she tells us, she trusted her team. Data is useless without trust.
2. Communication. On the other hand, she states that all this technology would be useless if she didn't express herself to tell her team how she was feeling at any given moment: "We are not robots, we are human beings; we have feelings and emotions, and you also have to know how to listen to that part, not just the data".

At La Lonja de la Innovación, we believe that the combination of technology with the human factor can lead to great solutions for challenges in different sectors. That is why we help entrepreneurs move their projects forward with our acceleration program. Would you like to join our ecosystem?

The interview by Juan Marcelo Gaitán and Mafran Martínez with Carolina Marín brings great lessons about resilience, strategy, and effort. Are you going to miss it? You have the full episode of HoM: Humano o Máquina available on our YouTube channel.