Dipa Karmakar says success at Nationals a ‘very emotional’ moment, shifts focus to tough path to Paris Olympics

Ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar is back with a bang, winning multiple medals at the Senior Artistic Gymnastics National Championship with a series of scintillating performances in Bhubaneswar last week. Karmakar won gold in the All-Around category besides winning silver in Vault and Uneven Bars in her first appearance at the nationals since 2015.

Speaking to Firstpost on Monday, Karmakar — who had become a household name after nearly winning a historic medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics — described the flurry of medals in the Nationals as a “very emotional” moment for her.

“After eight years, I’m a champion. This is a very emotional situation for me. We put in a lot of hard work, both me and my coach, and to finally come back as a national champion is a really happy moment,” Karmakar said in the exclusive chat.

Representing Tripura at the Nationals, Dipa finished second in both Vault and Uneven Bars with scores of 12.584 and 10.433 points respectively. She would however, finish with a total of 49.55 points to win the women’s all-round gold.

The 30-year-old revealed she did not too anything that was too fancy when preparing for the Nationals, and focused mainly on her execution.

“We were focusing only on execution marks. My score is a little higher in every apparatus except uneven bar. We’re not doing anything difficult at the moment, just normal routine training. Just focusing only on execution score,” Karmakar added.

Her success at the Nationals comes six months before the Summer Olympics gets underway in Paris. Karmakar, however, maintained that she’s still a long way off from securing a quota for Paris 2024, and that she’ll shift her focus to the qualifying events that includes multiple World Cups and the Asian Championship.

“Nationals and Olympics are very different. Gymnastics is a very difficult sport, and so is the qualification criteria for the Olympics. We are focusing on the four World Cups and one Asian Championship, and hope to give my best shot in vaulting.

“It’s very difficult, but we will try our best,” Karmakar said.

Karmakar first made headlines and gave an indication of what was to come in her career by winning bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It was her performance at the Rio Olympics, where she finished fourth overall, that truly put her on the sporting map.

However, a combination of multiple injuries on her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) that had her undergoing surgery in 2017 and 2019, followed by a 21-month suspension for a doping violation have resulted in her fortunes taking a massive hit. There was also the factor of a nation-wide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic which hampered her rehabilitation after she underwent a second ACL surgery in 2019.

Read | Dipa Karmakar calls doping suspension as ‘longest battle’ of her career

More recently, she had topped the trials for the Asian Games that had taken place in Hangzhou, China in September and October. Despite her solid performance in the trials in July and being initially named in the squad for the continental event, she couldn’t board the flight to Hangzhou as she failed to meet the qualifying criteria set by the Sports Ministry.

As if that’s not all, she’s also had to deal with people advising her to retire from the sport, telling her she’s “too old” to compete in such a physically-taxing discipline.

Karmakar, however, emphasised on the support that she received from her coach Bisweswar Nandi as well as her parents that helped her deal with tough times, and come out stronger.

“Whether the two ACL surgeries in 2017 and 2019 or during the suspension, my family and my coach, Nandi sir, always supported me. They told me, ‘we will come back, we are with you, you can do it’.

“Last two years were bad for me. No support anywhere except from my coach and parents. The last two years were very bad for me because performances like the one at Rio were followed by setbacks like surgery and suspension. I am a very emotional person and get affected by lack of support. But my one and only focus remained on winning a medal.

“Everyone says stuff like ‘you’re 30 just retire from gymnastics… you’re injured, how are you still in gymnastics… now is the time for you to go and give your spot to a junior’. But juniors don’t get a score of 49!” said Karmakar, whose last medal at an international event came in the 2018 World Challenge Cup in Mersin, Turkey.

When asked about the impact that coach Nandi has had on her life, and not just in sport, Karmakar described the former Indian gymnast as a father-figure who, along with her parents, were the main pillars of her life.

“He is my second father. Always supported me in every situation in the last seven-eight years. He is the main pillar of my life. My father, my mother and my guru, three people who have always stood by me like my strong pillar.

Reflecting on her journey so far, Karmakar expressed satisfaction at her heroics at the Rio Olympics, as well as in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games before that, helping bring a “gorgeous” sport such as gymnastics into the mainstream of a country that is known for its obsession with cricket.

“Before 2014 Commonwealth Games, not everyone was aware about gymnastics. After Rio, everyone knew gymnastics is also a sport where India can win a medal. I’m happy that after Rio, everyone got to know just how gorgeous and precise gymnastics is as a sport where the athletes are performing some big moves such as the ‘Produnova’, which are very risky in nature.

“Hopefully in the coming years, whether Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games or any other event, we win a medal and that the sport grows in popularity in the country,” Karmakar concluded.