In Dipa Karmakar, a fresh Indian Olympic dream
In the last six months, Dipa Karmakar’s life has swung the entire arc. On October 31, 2015, despite displaying the best vaulting effort of her career, Dipa couldn’t secure an Olympic berth. She had come perilously close, but a podium finish eluded her.
Executing the Produnova, Dipa’s poor landing, despite a strong jump and lift, negated an otherwise strong vault and she finished fifth. As she looked up on the giant screen, realisation sunk in and her Olympics dreams seemed dashed. But beyond her marking of 14.683 points, Dipa had done something bigger. She had put India and herself on the pedestal with that impressive showing. So when all hope seemed lost, a phone call from the Gymnastics Federation of India came to Dipa’s aid in February. The gymnastics’ Test event, serving as the final Olympic qualifier, was being held in the Summer Games’ host city Rio de Janeiro, and Dipa had just received news that she would be participating in it.
And that’s all she needed. Venturing into her most defining tournament, Dipa created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. What made it even more special was that she struck gold a day later. Yet there were no jubilant interviews or wild celebrations. With only three months left for the event, she didn’t have much time. What she did have though, were wishes from the nations’ renowned sportspersons, fierce support from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the never-ending words of encouragement from long-time coach Bisweswar Nandi.
“I was pretty excited knowing that I had qualified for Rio. Now I have more responsibilities. It has done my confidence a world of good since now I know I can do well there. Keeping that in mind, I’ve been practicing for three months. My first target is to reach the final,” Dipa tells Sports in an exclusive interview.
“My preparations are faring nicely. Whatever schedule I have been assigned, I’m taking that load well. I qualified in April, so I’m aware that three months’ time is nothing when it comes to preparing for something as big as the Olympics. Athletes put years of training behind them, but I have been a little unfortunate in that regard. Had I qualified during the World Championships, it would have given me a few more months.
“But May, June and July have been very productive for me. When I couldn’t get a podium finish at the World Championships, I thought I’d miss the bus to Rio. But I’m thankful to the Federation that they gave me a second chance. When that opportunity arrived, I simply knew that I couldn’t miss it.”
Dipa trains every day for eight hours divided across two sessions, barring Thursdays and Saturdays when she skips the evening practice. The SAI has managed equipments worth 80 lakh for her, a figure beyond imagination for Indian gymnastics until a few years back. Coming from humble beginnings, she had witnessed a period when the sport did not receive much funding from the government, forcing her to perform without shoes and a borrowed oversized, ill-fitting costume in her first gymnastics competition.
A Tripura girl, Dipa had no sporting figure in the state to look up to. Hence, few will ponder over her decision to take up the mantle herself. At the age of 14, she won the Junior Nationals in Jalpaiguri and has since won 77 medals across domestic and international tournaments, 67 of which are gold.
“My father (Dulal Karmakar) was a weightlifting coach with SAI, but was equally inclined towards gymnastic and wanted me to take it up. My first coach was Mr. Soma Nandi, whom I went to when I was five. Then I started training under Mr Bisweswar Nandi and it’s been 15 years since,” Dipa says. “Earlier I had no such target – qualifying for Olympics and all. Beijing Games was the first Olympics I followed and wanted to make it to London four years later. But since that didn’t happen, all I had in mind was qualifying for Rio.” “Agartala is a small town and not many are aware about it. Like I said, I am hoping I will be able to make my city proud. Not many sportsman/athletes emerge from my state of Tripura and I want to change that. Gymnastics is coming of age in the country and it has finally started getting attention which is a huge step ahead. Also, many youngsters now want to take up gymnastics and I want to give them that reason,” Dipa reveals.
She credits Nandi – who has been in the coaching field for three decades – for making it this far. He participated in the 1982 Asian Games and had 10 international events in his resume. He quit Gymnastics due to lack of funding in January 1986 and took up a coaching job under the Tripura state government. It has been said that Dipa was born with flat feet, medically termed ‘postural deformity’. It is a condition that reportedly affects the spring in an athletes’ jump. Dipa had to put in the extra shift to get the curve in her feet in order to compete at the highest level, and Nandi has been the guide to make that happen.
Nandi’s contribution didn’t end there. Dipa’s qualifying maneuver, the Produnova vault, named after former Russian gymnast Yelena Produnova, was the brainchild of Dipa’s mentor. This particular vault is a version of a two-and-a-half somersault where the athlete is to jump, take swivels in the air land on her feet. Many greats have dreaded it, and if not executed perfectly, the move can cause career-threatening injuries. However, many reckon hers is the best since the original.
“Gymnastics itself is a very unusual sport. It comprises different body motions and movements, so there is 99 percent of risk involved. But then again, with regular practice, the same risk turns into confidence,” Dipa says.
“My coach saw a few gymnasts applying it in the London 2012 Games. He thought since I had good speed, he would add this move to my stock. I sat with him and he showed me videos of it. It took me time but I got it done. He had advised me to take this risk if we were to make it to Rio Games. I unveiled it during the 2014 Commonwealth Games where I won a gold medal and I’m hoping it works for me this time as well. My leg used to bend a lot; I’m working on that. But it’s the landing that is the most important.”
Barring the Produnova, there’s one more move Dipa is working on and aims at getting it right. “It’s the Tsukahara 360 vault, where there was a lot of technical improvement needed. The balance of the body, the position while taking the jump, the bending of the feet and it not going smoothly over the back. I had wobbled a little in my turns during the CWG in 2014, but I’ve improved on the spins,” she says. From the low of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games where she had failed to win a medal and had cried days on end to her triumphant bronze finish four years later in Glasgow despite nursing an ankle injury, Dipa’s emergence has created quite the buzz. She went without practice for eight months before the Asian Championships owing to the temporary shutting of the national camp, and finished third.
Dipa had defied the odds then, and she can surely defy them now.
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