Carolina Marin has sent a daunting message to her rivals for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games badminton singles gold medal, saying she is a better player to the one who has romped to two world and two European titles in the past two years.

"I am a new Carolina," Marin said at a press conference in Rio. "I am mentally and physically better [and] in the best shape of my life."

Confidence is something the shuttler from Huelva in southwest Spain has never been lacking. At the age of 14, Marin went to the high performance centre in Madrid and had a one-way conversation with her coach, Fernando Rivas.

"I told him that I want to be Olympic, world and European champion and number one in the world," Marin said after training at Riocentro Pavilion 4. Nine years later, she is already three quarters of the way towards achieving those goals.

"I think it’s really important to have clear what you want in the future and then just work," Marin, the No.1 seed, said. "I am an only child and when I was 14 my parents decided to let me go to Madrid to play in the national centre. For them it was very, very hard to take that decision but I’m very grateful (they did)".

Marin crashed out in the group stage on her Olympic Games debut as a 19-year-old at London 2012, losing comprehensively to eventual champion LI Xuerui before a consolation win against Claudia Rivero.

She responded to the setback by having the Olympic rings tattooed on the bottom of her left wrist and has barely looked back since, winning the world championship in 2014 and 2015, and the European title in 2014 and 2016.

The world No.1 has now arrived in Rio de Janeiro as the favourite to complete her collection by winning the first Olympic Games badminton gold medal for a non-Asian country since 1996.

"I have my objective clear," Marin said. "Every day I have woken up thinking about a medal and I lie in bed unable to sleep."

Marin will play her first match of the Rio 2016 badminton competition against Nanna Vainio of Finland on 11 August.