For a five-year-old girl who was told that she cannot be a gymnast ever because of her flat feet, going on to represent her nation at the Olympics is nothing short of a fairytale. But, the golden girl of Indian gymnastics, Dipa Karmakar, did just that.
She became the first female gymnast from India to compete at the Olympics, and could have etched her name in the record books, had she not missed the bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics by just 0.15 points, and finished fourth.
The 31-year-old, on Monday, announced her retirement from gymnastics. "After much thought and reflection, I have decided to retire from competitive gymnastics. This is not an easy decision, but it feels like the right time," she said in a statement on social media.
"Gymnastics has been at the centre of my life for as long as I can remember, and I am grateful for every moment - the highs, the lows, and everything in between."
Dipa is India’s second gymnast after Ashish Kumar to win international medals and the first Indian female gymnast to win a bronze in the Commonwealth Games (2014) and in the Asian Championships (2015). An Arjuna Award recipient, Karmakar won both her international medals with the Produnova Vault—named after Russia's Elena Produnova, who performed the vault, later named after her, in 1999. It is considered one of the hardest vaults as the risk of injury is high. Even Dipa had to ditch it after an ACL injury.
Hailing from Agartala in Tripura and coached by Bishweshwar Nandi, a former international gymnast, Dipa joined Vivekananda Sports Academy at around five years of age. In a couple of years, she started showing her immense talent. In 2004, she was refused admission in the SAI as she was flat-footed. Three years later, she took part in the junior national level games in Jalpaiguri and won three gold and two silver. There was no looking back after that.
She went on to win gold in all five individual events at the 2011 National Games, and clinched the bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. She finished fourth in the vault final at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, despite suffering a hairline ankle fracture.
Dipa once again swept all individual events in the 2015 National Games, and won the bronze at the Asian Championships in Hiroshima, Japan, the same year.
But injuries hampered her career after the 2016 Rio Olympics, as she was out of action for almost two years because of the knee injury. She missed the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, but clinched the gold at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey, and the bronze in the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany, the same year.
But, Dipa aggravated her knee injury during the vault final at the Baku Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in 2019 and had to skip the Doha World Cup. She had planned to make a comeback at the Asian and World Championships but failed to recover in time. She could not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, partly because of the injuries and also due to the cancellation of tournaments because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, despite topping the Asian Games trials in her event, she was left out of the Indian squad for the Hangzhou Games as she did not fulfil the criteria of a top-eight finish in the last 12 months. She failed to meet the criteria as she was serving a ban due to anti-doping violation.
Dipa returned to the national championships earlier this year, and went on to win the gold in the Asian Senior Championships in Tashkent. But, Dipa, who returned to action in 2023, failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics—she finished 16th in the all-round category. The Asian Championship was the final Olympic qualifier. She had finished fourth in the vault final at the FIG Apparatus World Cup in Doha in April. Earlier, she had skipped the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany after finishing fifth in Cairo World Cup.