Gymnast Dipa Karmakar became a darling of Indian sports lovers when the girl from Tripura surprised everyone by finishing fourth in the Rio...
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar became a darling of Indian sports lovers when the girl from Tripura surprised everyone by finishing fourth in the Rio Olympics and missed a bronze medal in vault by a few decimal points.
The discussion around Karmakar and her dangerous Produnova, also called the Vault of Death for the degree of difficulty that could lead to a broken neck, had started way before when the Indian won the Olympics Test event in the same arena to become the first women gymnast from her country to make it to the quadrennial event.
What made Karmakar’s feat all the more special is the fact that only five women in the history of world gymnastics have successfully landed the vault, first successfully attempted by Russia’s Yelena Produnova in the 1999 Universiade Games and hence has been named after her.
Though Karmakar missed out on a medal in Rio, she earned a lot of plaudits for her effort in Brazil. But her first real attempt at Produnova, which not only took the gymnastic world by surprise but also made her the first Indian woman gymnast to win the Commonwealth Games medal back in 2014.
Karmakar had made it to the vault final even in the 2010 Commonwealth Games at...
