Press Trust of India
Rio de Janeiro, April 18: Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics as she booked a berth for the Rio Games with a strong performance at the final qualifying and test event here Sunday evening. The 22-year-old garnered 52.698 points to finish 10th in the overall list and qualify for the Games.
Apart from being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years. Since the independence of the country, 11 Indian male gymnast have taken part in the Olympics (two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964) but this will be the first for an Indian woman at the Olympics.
The International Federation of Gymnastics (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) confirmed Monday, Dipa’s Rio Games qualification in its official release.
“Following the Women’s Qualification Competition at the Gymnastics Test Event in Rio, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) herewith confirms the list of nations and individual gymnasts that have qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,” the world body said in its release. Dipa has been listed as the 79th gymnast among individual qualifiers.
The 22-year-old could not clinch an Olympic berth in the World Championships in November last as she finished outside the podium (fifth place).
She was earlier put as second reserve for the ongoing Olympic Test event in Rio but was informed last month that she had sneaked into the shortlist of participants.
Dipa had created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to win a medal – a bronze – in the Glasgow CWG in 2014. She then became the first Indian woman gymnast to feature in the finals of World Championships in November last year.
The sport of gymnastics has been in turmoil in the country in the last few years with rival factions holding elections and claiming to be the national federation. Even the camps for the gymnasts have been held under the aegis of Sports Authority of India (SAI).
Nothing however, has bothered Dipa. She continued to train under her coach Biseswar Nandi and in spite of all the hindrances achieved her dream of representing India in the Olympics. One of the lines on her FB page reads, “Falls happen only to leap high again.” She has definitely vaulted into the history books as far as Indian sports is concerned.