Guwahati: “Originality chala gaya hai…aasan nahi hota surgery ke baad. (She has lost her originality, it’s never easy after a surgery).”
Think Northeast and sports, and of course, it is hard to think beyond Manipur. Think Northeast’s favourite sport, and it is hard to think beyond football. So, it was nothing less than a shock when Dipa Karmakar, a gymnast from Tripura, a state hardly known as a sporting powerhouse, vaulted to global fame and near immortality at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
For days after, Indians spent hours learning about the gruelling Produnova stunt she performed to near perfection. And her ability to transform adversity into springboards of success instantly made her the poster girl of Indian gymnastics.
Cut to 2023, and for most sporting fans, Dipa Karmakar is a forgotten athlete. Reason? Injuries.
Months after the world noticed her at the Rio Olympics, Karmakar injured her knee ahead of the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships and was forced to go under the knife for her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in April the same year. She made a golden comeback at the Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Turkey in 2018 by becoming the first-ever Indian to win the yellow metal at any international event, before wrapping up the season with a bronze at Cottbus.
The nagging injury, however, continued to affect her off and on, and she missed out on the 2019 World Championships and the deferred 2020 Tokyo Games.
To make matters worse, in February 2023, Karmakar was handed a 21-month ban by the International Testing Agency (ITA) after her out-of-competition dope sample on October 11, 2021, returned positive for higenamine: a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code. Thankfully, the ban on Karmakar was retrospective, and it ends in a few days, on July 9.
Dipa has now set her eyes on the selection trials on June 11 and 12 in Bhubaneswar for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou (September 23 to October 8), EastMojo reached out to her coach and Dronacharya Bishweshwar Nandi to learn about his ward’s preparations.
“Originality chala gaya hai, aasan nahi hota surgery ke baad. (She has lost her originality, it’s never easy after surgery),” said Nandi without mincing his words.
“It will take some time (to regain her originality). The corrective surgery for the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on her right knee made a lot of difference in her performance over the past few years. And it’s never easy to return after a long lay-off and expect the best.”
Nandi said that Dipa restarted training a few months ago, and he has been monitoring her closely, keeping in mind the upcoming selection trials for the Asian Games.
“She restarted her training some two and a half months back, and initially we wanted to go light as the focus was more on getting into the groove, and later on gradually increased the intensity depending on her fitness. I can say she’s preparing well, although it’s nowhere like what we had done before the Rio Olympics.
“The kind of training and preparations before the 2016 Rio Games was intense as there were no injury concerns. The difference now is we have to be extra mindful of the injury and can’t risk it by overburdening her,” he added.
Nandi, who has guided Dipa to bronze medal wins at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the 2015 Asian Championships in Hiroshima, is also mindful of the fact that she’s returned from a ban and is helping her deal with the mental aspect.
“Also she’s returning from a ban, so there is an extra element which we have to take care of her mental health. All I can say at this moment is she is giving her 100 per cent according to her fitness levels, and once the ban ends on July 9, we’ll be heading to Bhubaneswar for the selection trials. It will be a good test of her fitness,” he hoped.
Dipa, now 29, has been mostly out of action for the past three-four years and is competing for a place for her first major international outing on a comeback. Asked how difficult it will be for the gymnast to make a mark on her return to competition mode, Nandi appeared optimistic.
“It is possible…today it’s all about power gymnastics. It’s no more like the past where gymnasts have to worry much about the workload, so I don’t see that as a hindrance for Dipa,” he said.
“A lot has changed in the last few years as far as gymnastics training is concerned. The new concept has helped a lot of gymnasts make rapid progress with their skills,” the coach commented.
For the uninitiated, power gymnastics is more about the blended approach of specific power training that includes stiffness drills, skill technique, and bounding, coupled with general power training like strength blocks and specific velocity-based training or rate of force development drills.
Hopes pinned on Protistha
The Dronacharya awardee also mentioned his new prodigy Protistha Samantha, a Bengal-based gymnast who has been training with Nandi for the last four years and has gone on to carve a niche for herself in the Indian gymnastics fraternity.
“Watch out for Protistha Samanta, she is an upcoming talent. She is also appearing for the selection trials for the Asian Games. She has been doing well in the junior circuit and in the next two and a half years, if all goes according to the plan and remains injury-free, Protistha will be winning medals in big-ticket events,” Nandi said.
“She has been training with me in Agartala and also in Delhi for the past three-four years, and she’s a bright prospect and a quick learner. She can make it to the top. Having said that, gymnasts are very prone to injuries and hopefully she stays injury free,” said Nandi as he prefers to keep his fingers crossed.
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Besides the duo, Pranati Nayak and Pranati Das are some of the names among women, while Rakesh Patra and Yogeshwar Singh are among the elite names in men, who will be hoping to make the cut for the continental Games in the Chinese city.
According to a notification from the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), for better evaluation, a two-stage opportunity will be provided to the gymnasts for assessment in Individual Apparatus.
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