Dipa Karmakar has made history. She has left Indian footprints for the first time on the vaulting table of an Olympics final. But she has made history in many other ways too. She has made a nation of cricket fanatics stay up late on the night before the first day of a new week waiting to watch artistic gymnastics – the rules of which sport still are not clear to many. She has also flirted with history in coming 4th, and is destined to be forever mentioned in the same breath as P.T Usha and Milkha Singh as pathbreaking Indians narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal.
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After completing her Produnova in the final, Dipa waved to the crowd as she waited for her final score to show up on the board, looking confident and elated, and also relieved. The board lit up showing 15.266, adding up to an average of 15.066, a figure which deserves to be immortalized in Indian sporting history. As it stood, she was placed second, and in with a chance of finishing in the medal places.
Of course, Maria Paseka of Russia and Simone Biles of USA, the only two gymnasts left to perform after Dipa, ensured that they lived up to their pre-event billing and took first and second places, pushing Dipa out of the top three. But those few moments had been precious. Generations of sporting imaginations are kindled at such crucial moments.
Dipa sent out a heartwarming message to the nation on India’s 70th Independence Day, thanking everybody for their prayers and wishes. She expressed satisfaction with her 4th placed finish at the Vault final, and thanked everybody who helped her reach this stage.
Edit: It was earlier reported that Dipa had apologized to the country for not winning a medal, but it later transpired that the apology message was tweeted by a fake account. The fake account has been parading on Twitter for at least the beginning of this month, and has got a lot of prominent athletes and celebrities following it.
A new verified account has emerged, however, which makes no mention of the previously existing account, which would indicate that the apology tweet was issued from a fake handle.
