Rio Olympics: Deepa Karmakar Creates History, First Indian Woman to Qualify

NEW DELHI: This is going be to be first time ever in the history of Olympics that an Indian woman will participate in its gymnastic events. Deepa Karmakar, 22, made this happen when she scored 52.698 in an Olympic qualifying event taking place in Rio, Brazil, making it to the event scheduled to happen later in the year. In India’s Olympics history there have been only three instances when it has participated in gymnastics (1952, 1956, and 1964).

“It was a very good score from Dipa and we were certain that she would qualify. Now the world body has published the names of the gymnasts who have qualified for the Olympics and her name is there. The gymnastics community is proud of Dipa's achievements," Deepak Kagra, an international referee, said to PTI after watching her performance.

Karmaker, meanwhile, went on to win another gold medal in the vault gymnastic event. Since 2007, she has won 77 medals, including 67 golds in total. She is ranked 79th in the tally of world gymnasts.

"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," confirmed The International Federation of Gymnastics (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) in its press release.

The Citizen talked to an elated Dulal Karmakar, father of Deepa Karmakar, who said, “I am very proud of her. She sent me a text after the event and only wrote “qualified for Olympics” I was very happy.” Upon asking about any early signs of precocity, Karmakar said, “We have two daughters, after the elder one, Pooja, got married we both (including mother) decided that we will make Deepa a sportsperson. “

“We got her enrolled in a sports training institution at the age of five where she was given good training for 3-4 years. Later she was coached by Biswaswar Nandi, who is still her coach. She has trained rigorously since. Now she trains for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. Only Sundays are spared from this routine”.

“Her body structure and short height is quite apt for gymnastics. Earlier she had faced some problems owing to her flat feet but she overcame that too,” he said.