I am Dipa Karmakar, an Olympian.
I do Artistic Gymnastics...
..and I am an Indian.
I have everything.
Everyone says I have reached the Olympics
but I don't have a medal.
We will put in our best efforts for Tokyo
We will try again to stand on the podium
at the Olympics 2020.
(SHAKTI INDIA'S SUPER WOMEN)
There is a state called Tripura, in the Northeast.
Its capital city is Agartala.
I have been living here since childhood.
My father was a weight lifting coach.
He used to like gymnastics
so he encouraged me for gymnastics.
I played till the Senior Nationals.
After that I got a job.
And because I have been associated with sport,
I thought to get my daughter into a sport.
When she was only five years old,
I noticed she was very fast,
unlike the other girls, who would sit quietly.
One of my colleagues became her first coach.
I asked Soma Nandi to take care of my daughter
as she was keen to learn.
(VIVEKANANDA BYAMAGAR)
She was very serious.
She loved gymnastics since those days.
She wouldn't stop until she was satisfied with her practice.
We used to love this about her.
While practising with us,
there was a North Eastern sports meet in 2002.
She was the youngest participant there.
Still, she scored a gold medal in that competition.
The Secretary of Tripura Sports Council
referred me to my present coach, Bisweshwar Nandi sir.
I judged her for the first 3-4 months.
Her behaviour with her seniors,
her level of interest.
She used to get very angry and used to complain that,
"Sir doesn't make me practise well.
"Sir practises more with the seniors."
She had a hunger inside.
She always used to ask me to make her practise more
as she wanted to beat her seniors.
I realised that she is highly interested in this.
I always believed that Dipa
can do well if she's provided adequate facilities.
In 2007, in the Junior Nationals
I won three gold and two silver.
I think that was my turning point.
I felt that I can do something and I must do it.
I won five golds in the National Games.
2011, 2012, 2013,
2014 Commonwealth Games,
2015 World Championship,
and everyone knows about '16!
I really feel good that
the people who didn't know about gymnastics earlier
and didn't know Tripura State
today they recognise this state as Dipa's!
In our state, especially, gymnast event
is rising due to Dipa.
I also have a daughter like her.
I advise her to follow Dipa didi
to watch and learn from her.
Nobody knew about Tripura.
It is because of Dipa Karmakar
that our state is also well known now.
Dipa Karmakar is Tripura's idol.
My family consists of my father,
my mother and my elder sister
who has a cute little daughter
who is very precious to me.
My mother is a housewife.
My sister is also a housewife.
I feel good because until now
no woman gymnast was able to represent us in the Olympics.
Today, my daughter has reached that level
and that makes me really proud.
On her birthday last year, I asked her to come home early.
She said, "No, my practice comes first
"and then my birthday."
I really like this about her.
There was a lot of support from my family.
If this support wasn't there
then I would have bigger problems.
Girls face a lot of challenges in sports,
such as wearing sports costumes.
Their lifestyle changes completely.
I am really happy to be in this profession.
Had I been somewhere else,
I would have probably been married off by now.
My relatives weren't supportive
when my younger daughter, Dipa, was born.
They said, "This time also you got a girl."
So, I asked them, "How does it matter if it's a girl?"
And now she tells them, "Have I done any lesser than a boy?"
Earlier it was said that girls can't do anything,
that girls are far behind.
After the last Olympics Rio 2016,
that mentality is changed.
Not only boys but girls also get that support.
But now I feel that girls have gone far ahead
in all the fields, not just in sports.
And after the Olympics Rio 2016, I feel really nice that
everyone says girls have
performed really well in sports
that even the boys were not able to do.
I feel very proud to be a woman.
Earlier gymnastics was termed as a circus,
and it is meant for boys and not for girls.
I used to feel bad that I chose such sport
which people don't know about and call it a circus.
Parents are interested now.
There are many more children enrolling in every centre now.
And especially girls have turned out in large numbers
in all of India.
Many youngsters who used to think that Olympics
is very difficult to reach.
Now if you ask, they say that
they too want to go for the Olympics like Dipa didi.
I will also go to Olympics like Dipa didi.
Dipa didi hangs out with us and guides us too.
Just like an elder sister.
Even we want to represent India
like Dipa didi and win medals for our country, India.
The aspirations have really grown.
Ambitions weren't so high earlier.
And with time it will reach its destination.
For gymnastics, in uneven bars,
balancing beam and floor exercise,
we have to show eight elements.
There are four special requirements...
..and four of your individual choice.
We are judged on 20 marks
of which ten is for difficulty level
and ten is for the execution.
The sum of these two is your score.
The more beautiful the execution looks,
when the legs are clean and tight,
that results in less deductions.
In 2010, 3-4 months before the Commonwealth Games,
I saw the Produnova vault.
I felt with Dipa's speed, she can do it.
I was also scared as this could result in a serious accident.
(PRODUNOVA IS AN ARTISTIC GYMNASTIC VAULT CONSISTING OF
(A FRONT HANDSPRING ONTO THE VAULTING HORSE AND
(TWO FRONT SOMERSAULTS IN A TUCKED POSITION OFF IT)
People began saying that Nandi will destroy this girl's life.
She could even die.
I said, "Sir, I am ready to attempt it.
"We need a medal at any cost."
Because it was a crucial peak point for women's gymnastics.
Perhaps if we hadn't won a medal then,
women's gymnastics probably would have ended,
because we weren't getting any results.
On the first day, I was scared while she was attempting it.
That day I did Produnova quite high over the track and landed.
I won bronze medal!
I haven't seen that in 20 years since Produnova!
I am very amazed to see someone doing that particular vault
because it is very difficult
but also it was nice to see
that someone that comes from a country
that you don't expect to see amazing gymnasts,
in not the greatest condition,
to be able to do this difficult vault.
I think this is great.
Everyone stands up in the gym when I do that vault.
I feel great that, despite being an Indian,
I am doing such a difficult vault.
There are lots of difficulties.
If I start to share then even 24 hours may not be enough.
Equipment - it was a very big problem for me.
The ground for the floor exercise that was always lumpy.
It was a regular Indian mattress
without spring or foam.
The standard distance of 80cm
between the uneven bars was not exact.
We didn't have imported vaulting tables.
It so happened once that I used the back seat of a scooter.
I tied that and asked her to push against it when jumping
because that too has sponge and gives a spring movement.
So I have made her practise like that also.
Our country's apparatus were unscientific.
I train using local apparatus.
When they get to use imported apparatus outside the state,
they get more life.
Gymnastics is such that the speed you have taught them in,
they have to maintain that speed, not less nor more.
Initially there were lots of challenges.
There were misses and no medals won.
Then after that, as I grew up and began understanding,
I started maturing and realised that we have to practise on
this apparatus and transition to the other one.
It depends on you how you manage the landing.
After 2010, we got equipment from Gymnova.
Maybe if we had those facilities earlier...
It took 52 years for us to qualify for the Olympics.
That probably would have happened many years ago.
We would have perhaps stood on the Olympics podium by now.
I qualified for the Olympics in 2015.
I was among the reserves after the rounds.
The first 24 are selected and I was 26th.
Then a Russian or a Korean withdrew
and so I got the chance.
In March 2106 we got to know
that I have been selected for the test even for Rio.
We only got 23 days.
Agartala does not have the facilities
where I could do both my regular vaults.
Sir made me work as hard as possible.
I went to Rio for the test event and I qualified for it.
I came from the 26th position to 7th.
So we went.
It was a 15.5-hour journey.
We didn't sleep for the past two days.
First Indian Gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth.
So she's done a fantastic job even to get in alone
and make a vault final.
The day of my qualifier in Rio, on 7th of August,
the vault didn't go as good as we had hoped.
I sunk to eighth in the finals.
Our final was on the 14th.
These seven days felt like seven years.
She said, "Sir, please pinch me."
I asked her why?
She said, "Sir, I am still processing this.
"Have we really reached the Olympics?"
At any cost, I didn't want to lose this chance.
When her turn came, she did very well.
She was at the third position.
(SHE MISSED OUT ON THE BRONZE BY ONLY 0.15 POINTS)
Finally, I finished fourth - unlikely.
I lost my medal by 0.15 points.
There were deductions for my leg swing and deep landing.
This is how our game is.
You may lose a medal for even 0.11 points.
I was happy when I finished fourth.
It was later that I realised
that I had just missed a medal.
Then I cried nonstop.
She saw the chart clearly in the room.
She said, "Sir, it's only because of a few points
"that I missed being third." She cried so much then.
She cried for at least 40 minutes.
Even I started crying.
I also sat with her and was wiping my tears.
After some time she said she was hungry
and she wanted to go to McDonald's.
We used to see McD's daily.
She used to ask when we'd be able to eat there.
I used to say after the 14th.
So we went to McD's
and I told her to eat whatever she wanted.
Then Sir explained, that this is how it is.
This is the life of a sportsperson.
Not everyone gets a medal.
Eight of us get into the finals and only three get medals.
Next time we need to try so hard
that we wouldn't be just fourth,
and we're able to stand on the podium.
So we think that anything that does not go well now
has to go well in the future.
She's so stubborn.
She keeps at it until she reaches her 100%.
We'll try our best for Tokyo.
The target would be to win a medal.
We'll do it for our country's gymnastics.
Our main target is the Olympics, 2020.
It feels that we would be able to do something.
She will win a medal in 2020 and make all us Indians smile.
That is my blessings for her.
(SHAKTI INDIA'S SUPER WOMEN)