On Sunday night, all of India will wait with bated breath when Dipa Karmakar, the 23-year old sporting sensation from Tripura, tries to pull off the perfect Produnova – a manoeuvre that can be both dangerous and highly rewarding. The bronze medallist from the 2014 Commonwealth Games has sealed a berth in the vault finals – a remarkable achievement in itself – but will face stiff competition in her bid to become the first Indian woman to win an Olympics gold medal.
In Agartala, Tripura, the Karmakar family is soaking in the adulation for Dipa, and are justifiably proud for having introduced her very early to gymnastics.
“She was only five-and-a-half when we decided to admit her in the Vivekananda Byamagar in Agartala. Unlike most other girls, Dipa was very enthusiastic about sports from a very early age. She is the younger of our two daughters and we thought it would be great if she could become a professional sportsperson. Now, after all these years, I feel great about that choice,” Dulal Karmakar, the gymnast’s father told Scroll during a long chat on Friday.
He added, “If you ask me to talk about one quality of Dipa's, it has to be her tenacity. She is obsessed with the sport she plays. The Produnova that everybody is talking about is not something she has been practising from an early age. She mastered it just before the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and without a foreign coach. She is now ready to fight for the biggest of honours.”
A boost from home
The Olympian’s preparations for the finals received a boost earlier this week when her physio Sajad Ahmad was rushed to Rio even though the ministry had initially turned down the request.
Said Dulal Karmakar, who is a coach at the Sports Authority of India “This is good news for us. Dipa used to tell us about how Sajad had helped her, especially during the days leading up to the Olympics. The margin of error will be very low in the finals, and even a slight improvement in fitness can be decisive.”
This is not the first time something of this sort is happening in India’s Olympics journey. Sriram Singh Shekhawat, the legendary middle distance runner of the country, had to face the same fate in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Mohammed Ilyas Babar, his longtime coach, was not allowed to travel. Only when Shekhawat broke the Asian record in the 800 metre race was Babar sent to Canada. In the process, he also set an Indian record, which has not been broken in the past 40 years.
Shekhawat was quoted as saying in My Olympic Journey, Digvijay Singh Deo and Amit Bose's book, “It was only after I broke the national record in the heats on July 23 and set a time of 1:45:86 that the officials realised their mistake. Babar was rushed by air to Montreal and an emergency passport was issued.
Dulal Karmakar, however, refused to moan about the issue, saying, “It’s sorted now, so there is no point sulking about it.”
In the final, Dipa Karmakar will be up against, among others, American teenage sensation Simone Biles, who has won two gold medals already. There will also be the 41-year old Uzbek gymnast Oksana Chusovitina, who is appearing in her seventh Olympics. Karmakar's proud family will be glued to their TV sets.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article had erroneously stated that Sriram Singh Shekhawat's Asian record has not been broken. It is his Indian record that remains unbroken. The error has been rectified.