Commonwealth Games 2018: Rising from the ashes, Rakesh Patra brushes aside poverty in search of an international medal

Gymnastics in India is but a recent phenomenon. The sport was made popular after a diminutive girl from Tripura, Dipa Karmakar, vaulted her way into the hearts of every fan. Now, like wrestling, shooting and badminton, gymnastics is also very much in the limelight.

Just like the sport itself rose from the dead, so did one of the best gymnasts in recent times, in India. Rakesh Kumar Patra, who hails from the small seaside town of Puri, Odisha, has never had it easy throughout his life.

While his path has been laden with obstacles throughout, the 26-year-old has mustered all his strength to push through these barriers. From facing closed doors to moving through poverty to even a near-death experience, Patra has experienced it all. However, this gymnast has persevered through everything life has thrown at him, as he went goes on in search of glory.

When the doors were shut on his face

Over the last few years or so, Rakesh Patra has been one of the best male gymnasts that India has had. While Dipa Karmakar's fourth-placed finish in the Rio Olympics was lauded by one and all, the same by Patra in the qualifiers of the Rings event at the World Cup in Australia, earlier this year went completely amiss.

So much so, that despite being one of the four Indians to make it to the finals, he had not been picked in the seven-member CWG squad for the Commonwealth Games. However, Patra refused to give in without a fight and appealed against this decision by the selection committee. The decision was soon overturned, and Patra is now on his way to Australia (at the time of writing).

Sportskeeda caught up with Patra just hours before he boarded his flight to Australia. When asked about this mixup, the 26-year-old brushed off the setback. "This chapter is closed now. What's done is done. What's more important is that I am going to Australia, and will try to bring back a medal from there."

This is but a series of setbacks that the young Patra has already had to face in his life. In fact, he has had to face such difficulties from the young age of five.

Rising from the ashes of a near-death experience

Rakesh Patra's family, despite being poor, had a big role to play in his growth

Patra hails from a poor family, who used to live in a thatched hut when he was a kid. Whatever dreams his parents had of the future, however, literally went up in smoke, as the thatched hut that they lived in, caught fire.

"In one sweeping moment, everything we had was taken away from us. We had to take refuge with different people after that incident," recalled Patra. "We kept shuffling from one home to the other, living with different families at different times."

Finally, with some financial help from their uncle, the Patra family was able to rebuild their home once more. That, however, was not the end of their problems.

"Most of our official documents had burnt down in the fire, so my father found it difficult to get a proper job after that," said Patra.

A champion raised by a poverty-stricken family

Despite losing everything, Patra's father strived hard to provide for his family. He started giving private tuitions to kids and eventually, found a job as a primary school teacher. However, he had a meagre salary and there was not always enough to feed all the hungry stomachs in the house.

To add to that, the growing expenditures on his son's budding career as a gymnast also began to take a toll on the finances. "My father ended up spending most of his money on me. I’ve even seen days when he went to sleep without even having his dinner," said Patra.

That, however, was not the end of the matter. Right from admitting his son to a sports hostel, to attending every one of his training sessions and then giving him study lessons for two hours after that, every day, Patra's father was always there to guide him through the tough times.

Even when things got tough, Patra's father never let his son feel the pinch of things.

Later in his career, when Patra started competing in the junior levels, it was his uncle Subhendu Patra, who came to his aid quite often. Subhendu, who was a national champion in gymnastics himself, urged his young nephew to take the sport more seriously.

"He gave me a lot of tips on how to do things. Whenever he went somewhere to participate, he used to bring home costumes for me to wear at the competitions," said Patra.

The elusive medal

Patra has narrowly missed podium finishes at international events

While Patra overcame a number of hardships to become one of the bests in the business in India, that still did not signal the end of his struggles. India is not a country that is known to have great exposure to facilities in this particular sport.

Patra is on the payroll of the Navy, which entails top-class facilities. A number of athletes prefer to get under the enrollment of the Army or the Navy due to this. However, the scenario is completely different in case of gymnastics.

"The facilities that the Navy provides are top class. But the extra requirements like a physio, proper nutrition, supplements are not provided. Also, there other necessary requirements like elite gym equipment are not available in India," said Patra.

Due to the lack of such facilities, Patra has not been able to match up to the standards of the international athletes, despite being one of India's best. "It's been five years since I've been trying to win an international medal. But I have missed out on them by narrow margins.

"Even when I went to the World Championships in 2015 (a qualification event for the Rio Olympics), I lost. The top 24 gymnasts got a spot in the Olympics, while I came in 25th," said Patra.

However, his fortunes seemed to have turned around from last year, when he was included in the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship programme under GoSports Foundation. With the financial aid behind him, Patra was able to go abroad for training, in places like China and Hong Kong, something that he believes has seen him improve manifold.

Since then, the 26-year-old has put his head down and trained hard. In fact, he has concentrated so hard on training, that he hasn't gone back home for around one and a half years now.

As he heads to Gold Coast, Australia, for the Commonwealth Games, Patra has but one objective in his mind now: "My biggest aim right now is to bring back a medal from an international competition."