6. Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics)
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The young girl from Tripura created history by becoming the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. Her biggest claim to fame before that was the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where she won a bronze medal in the vault. Back in October last year, she became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the finals at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
But her most memorable and famous performance cae during the 2016 Rio Olympics where he missed out on a bronze medal to Swiss Giulia Steingruber with an overall score of 15.066. Known for performing the dangerous ‘Produnova’ vault, the entire nation was glued to their television sets minutes before India’s 70th Independence Day, hoping for a medal, but that was not to be.
In spite of returning empty handed, Indians all over the globe lauded the Agartala-born girl for her efforts in a sport that India has never been known to embrace. Dipa is undoubtedly a path-breaker in Indian sports, and her success may well spawn the emergence of many more gymnasts in the country.
