Born with flat feet, Agartala girl Dipa Karmakar on Monday 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 here.
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.
The Agartala girl has been listed as the 79th gymnast among individual qualifiers in the list of women’s artistic gymnasts who have qualified for the quadrennial Games.
Apart from being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years.
Since Independence, 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, who is an Asian Championship bronze medallist, was originally placed on India’s reserve list for the test event before being told last month that she had been promoted to India’s main squad.
Accolades poured in for Dipa with iconic cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal leading the sports fraternity in praising her for the historic feat.
“Congratulations #DipaKarmakar on creating history with your qualification. You inspire young Indians with your achievement. Best wishes,” Tendulkar tweeted.
“Many congratulations for taking Indian gymnastics to a new high. Dipa Karmakar, we are so proud of you,” Sonowal wrote on his official twitter handle.
Within hours of her qualification Dipa’s entitlement under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme, the Government’s initiative to fund Olympic medal prospects in their preparations for the games, was enhanced from earlier Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.Dipa has been among the first lot of athletes who have been named under the TOP Scheme last year.
Cricketing stalwarts Virender Sehwag and VVS laxman and five-time chess world champion Viswanathan Anand also saluted Dipa.
The daughter of a weightlifting coach at the SAI centre in Agartala, Dipa started gymnastics from the early age of six and has been coached by Bisbeshwar Nandi.
However, Dipa did not enter the sport by choice, but was initiated into it by her father. In fact, Dipa’s fear of falling coupled with her flat feet made her initial days in the sport quite tough.
Dipa’s flat feet used to affect the spring in her jump and Nandi had to work hard to bring the arch in her feet. With time, she also managed to overcome her fear of falling and started to improve quite rapidly.
In 2010, she was part of the Indian gymnastic team in the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi, where she saw Ashish Kumar create history by winning India’s first ever gymnastic medal. Dipa later said Kumar was an inspiration for her.
Four years later in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Dipa grabbed the bronze medal in the women’s vault final. She received an overall score of 14.366. The medal made her the first Indian woman to win in a Commonwealth Games gymnastic event.
Dipa attempted the Produnova vault, a move that consists of a front handspring and two front somersaults, which is one of the most difficult and dangerous moves in gymnastics. However, Dipa’s attempt did not come off clean as her bottom touched the mat before she bounced back onto her feet, which earned her a penalty of 0.1 point.
But Dipa earned the distinction of being the highest scorer in the world to have accomplished the move. Among the contemporary gymnasts, only Yamilet Pena of Dominican Republic and Fadwa Mahmoud of Egypt have attempted the Produnova vault and neither managed to score as much as Dipa.