Gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who finished an impressive fourth in the vault final of the Rio Olympics in August, said she is aiming to beat reigning champion Simone Biles of the United States at Tokyo 2020. Karmakar scored an impressive 15.066 points in the Olympic vault final, but missed the bronze medal mark by 0.15 points. Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland finished third with 15.216. Biles was first with a remarkable 15.966.
"I know very well that if I aspire to beat the champion, I would at least finish with a gold or silver," said Karmakar. The 23-year-old added that she was on track for the next Olympics and her fitness training began two weeks ago.
Karmakar said that she never feared performing the Produnova vault, also known as the "death vault", with which she scored 14.850 in the qualifying round, because of the amount of training she put in to master it. “Every sport has a risk factor. Even in cricket if the ball hits the head anything can happen. It's how you master it. I've trained so hard under my coach that I never feared it," she said.