I’m excited to be back on the mat, says Dipa Karmakar

It’s a huge let down for especially those of us who have qualified for the Games and have been training really hard,” says Olympic gymnast Dipa Karmakar on the postponement of Tokyo Olympics. The athlete is single handedly responsible for catapulting the popularity of gymnastics in India. Karmakar is one of the only five women who’ve successfully landed the Produnova - regarded as the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics. “After Rio Olympics, people started talking more about gymnastics in my home state Tripura, especially the new generation, who were not very aware about gymnastics and never considered having a future in it. They started turning up in numbers to practice,” recounts Karmakar.

The athlete, however, does not fail to appreciate the silver lining that’s evident in these times. “Now that I’m at home for the past five months, I am trying to spend some quality time with my family, which we athletes often miss out while being busy with our career. I have also been training at home and keeping myself fit so that it doesn’t become much of a struggle for me to start full-fledged training when things resume.”

The ace athlete adds that there are some promising names that have made it to the big stage. “I feel that we have some very promising talent who have qualified for Tokyo. It would be great to see some of them stand on the podium. I am hopeful of a few medals given that some athletes have been very consistent at international tournaments,” she says.

Karmakar has also kept herself busy by training at home and being part of numerous welfare initiatives. “I think like most of the athletes, I have also been training at home. But thanks to the State and Central Government, the training centre in Agartala has opened up yesterday, following safety guidelines and I am very excited to be back on the mat. There have been downsides to these time as well. When you look around, so many household staff losing their jobs. This is why I became a part of help your help movement. During these times of distress, it feels great to be able to extend support to the people who have looked out for us, she concludes.