Dipa Karmakar

Dipa Karmakar
— Gymnast —
Country represented	India
Born	(1993-08-09) 9 August 1993 Agartala, Tripura, India
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Head coach(es)	Biswaswar Nandi
Medal record Competitor for  India Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Vault Asian Championships 2015 Hiroshima Vault

Dipa Karmakar (born 9 August 1993, Agartala) is an Indian artistic gymnast from Agartala, Tripura who represents India at the international circuit. She came to recognition when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held at Glasgow becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.^[1] She is also one of the five women that have successfully landed the very difficult Produnova vault in competition, also holding the highest score amongst all (15.100 ) in her attempt.^[2] She also won a bronze at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships both a first for her country. These achievements have established her as the most successful gymnast from India despite her young age.^[3]

Early Life

Karmakar hails from Tripura, Agartala and started practising gymnastics when she was 6 years old. She has been coached by veteran Bisbeshwar Nandi since. Karmakar had Flat feet when she first enrolled into gymnastics as her coach once recalled, "I still remember Dipa coming to me as a flat-footed kid, which is not good for a gymnast. It affects the spring in her jump," he told Firstpost. "That was the hardest part to fix for Dipa, we had to work very, very hard when she was a little kid to get the curve in her feet." Dipa credits her coach for her success saying she would be nothing today if not for her coach. Dipa's father was a SAI coach and he wanted her to try gymnastics, so he introduced her to despite her being reluctant.

In 2007 she won at the Junior Nationals in Jalpaiguri which furthered her passion for the sport. Since 2007, Dipa has won 77 medals including 67 gold, in state, national and international championships.^[4] She was part of the 2010 Indian gymnastics contingent in the Delhi Commonwealth Games where, as a participant, she saw Ashish Kumar create history by winning India's first ever gymnastic medals at the games. "That's when I told myself I will win it for India in Glasgow four years down the line," said Dipa.

Senior career

2011

In February, Karmakar competed in the 2011 National Games of India representing Tripura. She won five golds in floor, vault, all around, balance beam and uneven bars.^[5] She said of her performance, "I am very happy with my performance and give this credit to my coach Biswaswar Nandi who has worked very hard for me and at the same time I worked according to his coaching. I thank sir for all of these."^[6]

2014

In July, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Karmakar won a bronze medal in the women's vault final, thanks to a vault of difficulty 7.00. She received an overall score of 14.366.^[7] This win made her the first Indian woman to win a commonwealth gymnastics medal and the second Indian, after Ashish Kumar.^[8]

At a felicitation for the CWG athletes on August 8 in Delhi, Dipa Karmakar, was acknowledged by India’s sporting icon. Sachin Tendulkar by mentioning her in his speech saying that it was a big achievement and that he was proud of her.^[9]

At the 2014 Asian Games, Karmakar finished fourth in the vault final with a score of 14.200 behind Hong Un-jong, Oksana Chusovitina, and Phan Thị Hà Thanh. After the competition, Karmakar said, "See, the two top girls here are the gold and silver medalists in the Olympics while the third girl was bronze winner at the world championships. So, I'm more than happy that I gave them a good fight and finished fourth here."^[10]

Produnova Vault

Karmakar has logged the highest score on a Produnova in the world: 15.100, which is 7.000 for difficulty, and an 8.100 for execution, with a 0.1 penalty, making her the rarest of rare phenomenons. Only two of her contemporaries have attempted the Produnova: Yamilet Pena of Dominican Republic and Fadwa Mahmoud of Egypt. None has managed to garner a high of 15.100 in a high-profile competition. The Produnova comprises running full tilt towards the springboard, a jump that is followed by blocking by the hand, swinging the legs into two full rotations while in flight for twin somersaults, and then the all-important frontal landing, which can go awfully wrong and snap the spine into two if unbalanced.

When the Russian Yelena Produnova made her dismount stick (landed firmly on unbent feet) at the 1999 Universiade Games, it was considered a high-risk manoeuvre, because her famous handspring double front vault could end up in serious spinal Comfortably seated on an easy couch at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium said believed she could fo the vault and that she is entirely in control of her movements on the vault. She knew about the risks when coach Nandi floated the idea around four months ago. “She’s always had the speed and strength. I consulted senior coaches because this is a risky vault, but when I asked her, she was confident,” says Nandi.

Karmakar had watched a South African and a Guyanese flub the Produnova miserably at the Tokyo World Championships. “More than the bronze medal, I was happy I succeeded in this vault,” said Karmakar, recalling seeing Yelena's YouTube videos. “But I remember her green costume!” Karmakar began training three months ago. “I’d seen boys do it, so why not? It’s tough because when you land after two aerial somersaults, the weight that comes on the leg is double – if I’m 45 kg, the legs have to take 80-90 kg,” she says. Now, imagine landing on the neck instead, which can crack under such weight. “I don’t imagine the worst, it doesn’t work like that,” she says. Coaches feel responsible for such high-risk manouevres, and Nandi spent several sleepless nights debating if his ward was ready. “It was only 10-15 days before we left for Glasgow that I thought she should try it on the real apparatus,” Nandi said.

2015

The Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships was held in the Japanese city of Hiroshima during July 31-August 2, 2015. Dipa won the bronze in women’s vault while finishing 8th in the balance beam event.^[11]

In October 2015, Dipa became the first ever Indian to qualify for the final stage of the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.^[12] She scored 14.900^[13] in the qualification round to secure her place for the final round, where she finished 5th. In the final, she scored a total of 14.683 to rank 5th.

2015 World Artistic Gymanstics Championships

References

External links

• Profile at the 2014 Commonwealth Games