Dipa Karmakar.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Just-retired Indian gymnastics star Dipa Karmakar believes most of the current generation of gymnasts lack passion and urged them to embrace the sport with fervour to excel on the global stage.
Dipa, who blazed a trail by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to compete at the Olympics and finish a historic fourth in 2016 Rio Games, retired earlier this month, ending a career in which she inspired awe for routinely performing the highly-difficult Produnova vault.
"There was junoon (passion) in Dipa, that is why. Same for Pranati," she said when asked why there is only one Dipa or Pranati Nayak among Indian women gymnasts winning medals on the international stage.
"I can't see this junoon (passion) much in the current generation (of gymnasts). I feel they look for short term, instant success," she said on Friday night during a panel discussion at an event titled 'Beyond the Finish Line', organised by Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon.
The diminutive 31-year-old from Tripura grabbed headlines with her fourth-place finish in the vault final of the 2016 Rio Games, losing an Olympic medal by just 0.15 points.
Tokyo Olympian Pranati has won a vault bronze medal each in the 2019 and 2022 Asian Championships.
Hailing from Agartala, Dipa is one of only five women in gymnastics history to have successfully executed the Produnova, which involves two somersaults before landing and is called the 'vault of death' owing to the high risk of injury it poses.
She felt that the problems plaguing the national federation for some time has also not helped the cause of Indian gymnastics.
"There was problem between the SAI and federation. For example, the selection criteria for the last Asian Games (2023) were known only after the actual trials.
"I want to bring changes in Indian gymnastics so that these kind of problems do not happen in future, but I can't do this alone," she said, when asked about his future plans.
While announcing her retirement, Dipa had said that she would give back to the sport by becoming a coach at some point in her life or she might simply remain a "supporter of the next generation of gymnasts following their dreams".
As recently as May, Dipa won vault gold medal at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tashkent but decided to retire a few months later.
Asked why she took the decision to retire, she said, "I had two ACL surgeries, shoulder and ankle injury. I was not being able to do my main event of vault the way I wanted. If the body is not allowing to push, there is no point of continuing." When she started the sport in her home state, people would tell her why a woman should do gymnastics.
"People asked negative question like 'do women play gymnastics'? Another thing is many people did not know where Tripura is located. They would ask whether it is in Bangladesh or in northeast India.
"I want to put Tripura in Indian sporting map and also to show that women can excel in the sport of gymnastics." Medal in 2028 LA Olympics is the target: Chirag
Star Indian men's doubles shuttler Chirag Shetty said his partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy is currently recovering from an injury and and they will soon return to the international circuit after not participating in any tournaments since their medal-less campaign at the Olympics.
"My partner is injured currently, we will start soon and make our plan. Obviously, medal in 2028 LA Olympics is the target," he said.
"We wanted to win medal in the Paris Olympics but that was not to be. But never say never. We have won almost every medal except for an Olympics medal. We would also like to win gold in the World Championships.
"I want to win every medal the sport has to offer before I retire." Chirag, the reigning Asian Games men's doubles gold winner, said that singles players received more attention in the country before he and his partner made their mark.
"Earlier, people used to look up to the singles players and not to doubles. There was step-motherly treatment to the doubles players and they did not get enough support initially. But slowly and steadily, things have changed," he said.
"It's the change in mindset that we can beat anybody in the world which is taking us ahead." Asked about the historic Thomas Cup title win, he said, "The difference was in the urge and jest to win the title. I have played many matches much better than the one in the Thomas Cup final but have not played with the same jest I had that day. That made the difference."