“If you want to achieve something in life you have to take risks”
Dipa Karmakar (born on 9 August 1993) is an Indian artistic gymnast who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history and second Indian overall after Ashish Kumar at the Gymnastics world challenge cup. She had qualified for the 2016 finals at the Rio Olympics and became the first Indian female gymnast for the last 52 years. She is one of the only five women who have successfully attempted the Produnova (difficulty level 7) which is regarded as a very difficult and risk vault to perform in women gymnastics. Unfortunately, she missed out on the medal finishing fourth in the finals of the Rio events 2016 with a score of 15.066. She also won a bronze medal at the Asian Gymnastics Championships’ for nine years; she has collected 77 medals out of which 67 are gold medals in the state, national, and world championships.
She is the recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, Padma Shri award by Government of India, and among Forbes list of super achievers from Asia under the age of 30 in 2017. She is supported by the Government of Sports Foundation under the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship program. In October 2015, she became the first Indian gymnast to qualify or the final stage at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she finished first with a two-vault average of 14.683. She won a gold medal in the vault event of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Turkey in July 2018, making her first Indian gymnastic to finish first at an international event.
Life lesson – India’s Golden ‘Produnova’ Queen Dipa began her gymnastics at the age of 6; however, the Sports Authority of India denied taking her as a trainee because she had flat foot, which affects the quality of jumps and landing. Unfortunately, it is considered as an undesirable attribute for a gymnast. But as said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Winners like her never quit, with the help of her long-term coach Bisbeshwar Nandi she worked on her feet, and with years of practice and preparation she was able to develop an arch in her foot. In addition to his hailing from a small town, h faced several other problems like availability of the good platform, proper food, apt gym condition and equipment, lack of social and financial support, etc although grit and determination was her biggest asset and she never looked back.