The most inspiring women artistic gymnasts at Rio 2016

As India’s first woman gymnast at the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar will be stepping into unchartered territory when the qualifiers of the artistic gymnastics begin today. The 22-year-old’s death-defying and skilful Produnova vault has by now captured the hearts of a global audience who are looking at her to do great things in the vault apparatus.

However, hers is not the only inspiring story on the Rio Olympic Arena. In a sport that inspires some of the most backbreaking struggle for athletes, here are the women who take the spotlight in 2016 artistic gymnastics Olympics.

Simone Biles

For every woman in the artistic gymnastics event, the person to beat is 19-year-old Simone Biles.

Brought up by her grandparents Nellie and Ron, who adopted her and her sister when their mother could no longer care for them due to drug problems, Simone is depicted by American media as every bit the giggling teenager that you would not expect her to be, under the weight of her considerable achievements.

Already considered the greatest woman gymnast of all time, Biles is a two-time defender of the World Champion title which she first won when she was 16 years old and has held on to, ever since. At 4 feet 9 inches, she is a power to behold. With a move now known as the ‘Biles’ and involving a double layout followed by a blind landing, Simone is not just the gymnast but the sportsperson to look at in Rio.

Oksana Chusovitina

At 41, Chusovitina is the oldest athlete at the Rio Olympics. Her first Olympics appearance was at the 1992 Barcelona games. Simone Biles, who she will compete with, was not even born then. But Chusovitina is not simply the oldest at what she does, she is one of the role models young girls going into gymnastics have been able to look up to for years.

It is almost impossible to overstate the value of her life in building her status as a living legend of gymnastics. Not only did she represent three countries – the Unified team, Germany, and now Uzbekistan – in the course of her 25 years long career, the story of her return to elite gymnastics as a mother of a child whose cancer led her to move countries is no less significant.

A vault specialist who is exceptionally neat in her sticks, Chusovitina is an Olympic gold medallist with the most number of world championship medals in vault. Over the years, her focused yet unsmiling firmness on the mat has been as much an integral part of artistic gymnastics as her sustained presence on the podium.

Hong Un-Jong

An exceptional gymnast from a nation like North Korea, Hong Un-jong has been a figure of speculation ever since she was banned in November 2010 for a beguiling habit of using different birth years for different competitions.

The vault winner of the 2008 Beijing Olympics therefore could not participate at the London games, and her country too was banned from sending a competitor. But this year, after serving her ban, she has qualified once again to be back at the Olympics, bringing with her the mystery that surrounds her.

Yet to shed her ‘woman with three birthdays’ epithet, the cool and collected 2014 vault world champion is billed to debut a new vault at the Olympic qualifiers – a never-before-seen triple twisting Yurchenko.

Hong has earlier denied the invincible Simone Biles a gold medal on two occasions with her masterful and almost faultless execution of the Amanar followed by the Cheng.

Guilia Steingruber

The first Swiss woman to clinch the all-around individual title at the European Championships, Steingruber will return in her second Olympics appearance as one of those competitors who are distinguished by their ability to weather losses and bounce back.

Steingruber debuted her eponymous balance beam salto in the 2011 World Championships, but her career has seen significant highs and lows since then. 2012 saw her win the vault bronze in the European Championships, but in the London Olympics, she was a reserve at the vault final.

Giulia hovered around the 14th and 15th rankings at the all-around finals before winning the all-around title in Europe in 2015. In the same year, at the Glasgow World Championships, she suffered an injury to her knee. At Rio, she will bring her trademark powerful Rudi vault, in addition to adding yet another chapter to her erratic but illustrious career history.

Aly Raisman

The most decorated American gymnast of the Olympic games is a returning U.S. team captain whose mesmerising floor routine to Hava Nagila is as famous as her leadership abilities. A gymnast’s career is that of many comebacks and 22-year-old Raisman is no stranger to the concept. After a fiercely successful London Olympics at which she won two golds and a bronze, Raisman injured her knees following a fall from the uneven bars at the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions in the same year.

This prompted an almost two-year long break for her. She returned in 2015 and won gold and bronze at the City of Jesolo Trophy, as champions do. Along with Gabby Douglas, Raisman is one of the few women who have made back to back Olympic teams for the U.S. A floor sweeper extraordinaire, she is going to hope for a gold this time.