It doesn't happen often. On Sunday night, many Indians stayed up late to watch a sport that some of them might never have watched before. It was 22-year-old Dipa Karmakar's historic debut at the Olympics, the first Indian woman gymnast at the Games.
Around midnight, Karmakar performed twice in quick succession on the vault apparatus. In her first attempt, she executed the Produnova, one of the most dangerous gymnastics vaults, completed successfully by only five gymnasts in the world. Karmakar is one of the few who can perform this vault and people had stayed up in anticipation.
Except the official telecast of the Games never showed the Produnova. It showed Karmakar's second attempt, where she performed the Tsukahara vault. And people, including a certain Amitabh Bachchan, were understandably furious.
Good. Dipa Karmakar has qualified. But who won the Spot-Dipa-Karmakar-on-Star-Sports award? #Rio2016
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) August 8, 2016
T 2341 - #DipaKarmakar .. they said they would show you but never did .. channels interested in the other country athletes ! Good luck
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 7, 2016
Dipa Karmakar scored 15.1 in her first attempt. @StarSportsIndia how did you miss it? Most importantly, WHY?
— Shuvro Ghoshal (@shuvro_addict) August 7, 2016
Why call yourself star sports "India" when you dont want to show Indian players in action!? @StarSportsIndia why wer dipa's event not shown?
— aditya datar (@AdiDatar) August 7, 2016
Now you see her now you don't. 😞 Seriously @StarSportsIndia ?#DipaKarmakar
— mandira bedi (@mandybedi) August 7, 2016
#DipaKarmakar... Star sports busy in showing other events in the same podium when dipa is doing her floor event... still proud of you girl.
— Dabinola Sumer (@DabinolaSumer) August 7, 2016
In all fairness, it wasn't the fault of Star Sports. As knowledgable people tried to point out, the channel could only broadcast the feed it got.
Just to remind people that the feed comes from the host broadcaster in Rio, Star Sports doesn't control it.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 7, 2016
Karmakar ultimately finished eighth in qualification and became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics finals,a hugely historic feat.