PARIS: Mexican badminton player Luis Ramon Garrido nearly ended his career in 2022 after eight knee injuries, but having never competed at the Olympics, he knew could not give up on his dream to play on sport's grandest stage.
The 28-year-old suffered a catastrophic knee injury in 2018, after having come back from a condition that threatened his kidneys three years earlier.
"I destroyed my knee in a tournament," Garrido said of the injury that led to his first of eight surgeries over the next four years. "I destroyed everything, it was pretty painful - not only physically, but also mentally.
"I thought about retiring in 2022 but I couldn't get the Olympic dream out of my mind," he said.
"I know that I'm not going to win a medal ... With all the injuries I have had and all the time that I have lost, I know my position. (But) I'm going to fight and even if I have to give my life, I will do it."
Garrido said he did nearly lose his life in 2015, from rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which damaged muscle breaks down rapidly, often due to high intensity exercise over a short period of time. The condition can lead to serious kidney damage.
"It's like I was losing the kidneys. They were not processing everything, so I was peeing blood every day," Garrido said.
"I think in one moment, it was 50/50 ... The doctor told me that if I didn't attend to that illness in the next couple of days, it would maybe have been the end."
Garrido, who plays Chou Tien-Shen of Taiwan in a men's singles group game on Sunday, moved to Spain to be near a specialist doctor for four months before returning to training.
He credits his father, a retired soccer player who worked in developing rackets in Monterrey, for nurturing his love of the sport.
"We started playing in an old gym in the university, just for fun," Garrido said. "I was practically still a baby, playing badminton in a nappy. I just got addicted to hitting that shuttle."
No matter what happens in Paris, he is thankful he chose to keep playing.
"Thinking about the whole process, it's just a dream to be here." - Reuters