Dipa Karmakar
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Family and early life
Sekhar Datta, Avishek Sengupta in Guwahati, and agencies, The Telegraph India
She was born in 1993 on a historic date - August 9, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in 1942. Her hometown is Ujan Abhoy Nagar in Tripura. Nickname: Tina
Dipa had won bronze medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and in artistic gymnastics at the Asian championship in Hiroshima in 2015, besides being five times national champion. Dipa was given the Arjuna award on the basis of these performances, well before her selection for Rio.
Accolades poured in with cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar leading the sports fraternity in praising her for the historic feat. Tendulkar said her achievement would inspire the youth of the country.
Within hours of her qualification, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) included her in the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme, the government's initiative to fund Olympic medal prospects in their preparations for the Games.
Dipa's father Dulal Karmakar is a SAI coach for weightlifting, .
Dipa's mother Gita Karmakar homemaker, was effusive in her expression of thanks and gratitude to goddess Tripureshwari.
B.K. Chakraborty, secretary of Abhay Nagar Boys Club, recalled how Dipa was initiated into gymnastics at the age of six. "The initial hurdle that she had to cross was her flat foot, which restricted her springing action, so essential to gymnastics. But her coach Bishweshwar Nandi gradually got her in shape through practice," Chakraborty said.
First Indian woman gymnast at Olympics
Dipa Karmakar becomes first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics
Highlights
- Dipa could not clinch an Olympic berth in the World Championships in November 2015 as she finished outside the podium.
- Dipa was earlier put as second reserve for the ongoing Olympic Test event in Rio.
- Dipa was informed in March 2016 that she had sneaked into the shortlist of participants.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics as she booked a berth for the Rio Games after a strong performance at the final qualifying and test event.
The 22-year-old garnered a total score of 52.698 points in the Olympics qualifying event to book a berth for artistic gymnastics in Rio Games to be held here in August.
Apart from being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years.
Since the independence of the country, 11 Indian male gymnasts have taken part in the Olympics (two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964) but this will be the first for an Indian woman at the Olympics.
Dipa was listed as the 79th gymnast among individual qualifiers in the list of women's artistic gymnast who have qualified for the Rio Olympics.
Her first vault, the much difficult Produnova, gave Dipa 15.066 points, the highest among the 14 competitors. But a poor show in the uneven bars took her points down as she collected 11.700, the second worse among the 14 participants.
The Tripura girl secured 13.366 and 12.566 points in beam and floor exercises.
The 22-year-old could not clinch an Olympic berth in the World Championships in November 2015 as she finished outside the podium (fifth place).
She was earlier put as second reserve for the ongoing Olympic Test event in Rio but was informed last month that she had sneaked into the shortlist of participants.
Triumphs in 2014, 2015
Dipa had created history by becoming the first [Indian] woman gymnast to win a medal -- a bronze -- in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. She then became the first Indian woman gymnast to feature in the finals of World Championships in November 2015.
The sport of gymnastics has been in turmoil in the country in the last few years with rival factions holding elections and claiming to be the national federation. Even the camps for the gymnasts has been held under the aegis of Sports Authority of India.
Olympics: Reaches finals with eighth position
ALOK SINHA, Aug 09 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Pulls Off Daring Move Shunned By Most Gymnasts
On 7 August 2016 , Dipa Karmakar soared in the air and vaulted into history . Be fore her, no Indian gymnast had ever reached the finals at the Olympics.
Here is the heart-warming story of an unwavering 23-yearold girl from Tripura and her equally committed coach (Biseswar Nandi ) who dared to dream the impossible. At the core of Dipa's incredible journey is Produnova, one of the most exacting and dangerous vault routines in gymnastics -a front handspring followed by two speedy somersaults in the air, climaxing with a thud-like landing.Named after Russian gymnast Yelena Produnova, few dare attempt the high risk manoeuv re. But for Dipa, who comes from a lower middle-class family in Agartala, Produnova is a shining badge of identity , her signature. She is the princess of vault.
That's why at the press conference, when a Wall Street Journal reporter queried her, she was forthright in her reply .“I like to take risks,“ she said. Produnova's inclusion in Dipa's repertoire was the brainchild of Nandi, a four-time national champion from Tripura, who first saw a South African gymnast perform the routine at the Antwerp World Championship in 2013. “Some people..kept saying only boys can do this. I knew my girl's capabilities,“ he once told a newspaper.
The girl has already made him proud. “America's world champion Simone Biles came to meet me before the event and wished me luck. I was over the moon. When an athlete as big as Biles walks up to you, then you are doing something right,“ Dipa said with pride, her eyes shining.
She had scored a 14.850 in the vault routine and was sixth with three subdivisions of qualification yet to go.
She had kept her fingers crossed, tightly, thinking of those difficult times spent in the sweaty hall of Agartala where she trained under Nandi, even as a doting former weightlifter-father Dulal watched from the sidelines.
Four hours later, when she would have finished dinner at the Games Village, Dipa would have learnt that she had qualified eighth for the vault finals.
She finished 51st overall in a field of 98 but that was incidental, just a number. She is not a beam, floor or an uneven bars girl. She is simply the Produnova girl. It was touch and go when Dipa ignored the debutant's butterflies and went for broke in vault qualification. She performed the Produnova well in the first attempt but did not have a good second attempt where she had to do something different. You get two tries but you cannot repeat routines.
That was playing on her mind when she walked out to speak to the media. “Second wala thoda weak tha. I wish it was better,“ she said.
The top eight qualify for the final and she has ended up eighth, with a Q against her name. “Anything is possible. The girl from Great Britain, among the top nations in gymnastics, dropped out due to injury. Right now, I am happy to just be here, to compete with the girls I have admired, idolized,“ she told a group of Indian journalists earlier in the evening.
Talking about the judges at the Olympics, Dipa said, “The judging here is very strict. Getting high scores here is very difficult... you really have to very impressive. It is very different from Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Asian Games. People who score 14 in other events, they are scoring just 12 here. In the test event, my average score was 14.7, today my average is 14.850. If my second vault was better I would have been happier.“
