DIPA VAULTS TO GLORY

Never mind Dipa Karmakar. You did not get a medal at the Rio Olympics but you did the impossible. At the stroke of midnight on Independence Day, you changed India's tryst with destiny to its tryst with amazing, incredible, liberating effort.

On a manic Sunday when much bigger stars from India were falling like ninepins, when the largest contingent ever to be sported by India was looking bleak and bankrupt, a 23-year-old hitherto unknown gymnast from Agartala won as no other athlete who loses a medal can or ever will.

The unassuming artistic gymnast did what no one expected her to: First, she qualified for the Finals of the difficult Vault event ranked eighth on the list and then she missed a Bronze medal by a whisker — just the minutest of .15 points.

After her twin vault performance, she briefly stood at the Silver medal spot with an aggregate score of 15.066 with world champion Simone Biles and Russia's Maria Paseka yet to perform.

With Biles lifting the Gold (15.966) and the Russian the Silver (15.253), Dipa Karmakar got pushed to the fourth spot by the eventual Bronze winner from Switzerland Giulia Steingruber who made it to the podium with a total score of 15.266.

Dipa, who not just kept the entire nation awake on TV, Twitter, Hotstar and other such platforms late into the night, was dignified in defeat and poised through the competition where India has been a pygmie all its life. "Fourth... bad luck, but I am happy with my performance. I will work hard for 2020 Olympics and bring a medal for India," she told Star Sports after her jaw dropping performance on the vault, in which she attempted the life-threatening Produnova with precision and ease. Just for a split second, she landed on her haunches to get a .5 deduction and lose the podium.

Karmakar is only the fifth woman in gymnastics history to land the Produnova vault, or the handspring double front. The Produnova is an artistic gymnastics vault consisting of a front handspring on to the vaulting horse and two front somersaults off. The vault carries a difficulty score of 7.0 and is considered the hardest vault to perform. Some activists have been clamouring for a ban of this discipline and even established gymnasts rarely attempt it. But that didn't stop Dipa.

Her achievement and fourth position is majorly significant because Gymnastics has been a next to nothing sport in India for generations and the brief lift that it got from Allahabad gymnast Ashish Kumar's 2010 Commonwealth performance got lost in the haze of federational neglect, lack of infrastructure and dirty politics that innately surround India's sports administration culture.

Ashish lost his future to the Federation's decision to axe his foreign coach which the young gymnast said was the worst thing to happen to him. But after Dipa Karmakar qualified for the Finals, she gave Ashish his biggest tribute by saying she was in Rio after being inspired by watching him perform.

Dipa's struggles on the road to Rio are well documented. With hardly any infrastructure for training, she started off by practising the vault on scooter spare parts junked in a local garage in Agartala. Add to that the fact that neither gene nor tradition support an Indian gymnast and you will agree why a medal-less Dipa Karmakar should be, and is, the toast of the nation, the reigning queen of the #BillionCheers online campaign.

Yes USA's Simone Biles too has a backstory that makes for good copy, adopted as she was by foster parents. Yes, the Swiss Bronze medalist too has been working hard to add up money for the treatment of her handicapped sister.

But Dipa is really something else, an alag level ki awesome athlete.

While Biles got the best system in place, all the money and top line coaches to work with and show her individual brilliance, Dipa kept at it with a dismal support structure and next to nothing in her kitty to boast of.

Fighting courageously to introduce a curve into her flat foot (gymnasts don't land well on a flat foot) at age 6, to performing at the highest stage of world sports, Dipa is someone who comes along once in a blue moon to inspire as no one else. She is also an icon who has put to shame our politically motivated, self-interested sports administration. And she did so at the stroke of midnight with a smile and a poise which glitter far more than gold.

At Tokyo 2020, she will be 27, considered old age for a gymnast. But her spirit may just defeat that snag too, just like her flat foot. A nation awaits for the petite girl who has finally brought the marginalised North-East to India's mainstream. 

Source: The Pioneer, 16 August, 2016