Gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

came of age in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, when at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

, Ashish Kumar won the first-ever medal in gymnastics, he won a bronze medal. However, soon after the win, the President of the Gymnastics Federation of India asked Ashish's Chief Coach from the Soviet Union, Vladimir Chertkov: "Is this all that you can deliver, a bronze?" The comment was widely reported in the press. Later, the coach revealed that "In August 2009, we had no equipment. Ashish trained on hard floor till February 2010, and then we got equipment around 20 years old." Also, the Federation announced that no Indian team would travel to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

for the World Championships in October, which meant that Indian gymnasts automatically would not qualify as a team for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Ashish also won a silver medal in the Men's vault at

. It was

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

, from where India's path in gymnastics started taking shape slowly, when

Dipa Karmakar Dipa Karmakar (born 9 August 1993) is an Indian Gymnast from Tripura State. She is the first gymnast of India who competed in the Olympics. In her debut 2016 Summer Olympics, in the final she reached till 4th position. At the Rio Olympics, sh ...

from

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

, a small state of India, went on to win a bronze medal in the Women's vault finale and performed the

Produnova The handspring double salto forward tucked, known as a Produnova in women's artistic gymnastics and a Roche in men's artistic gymnastics, is a vault consisting of a front handspring onto the vaulting horse and two front somersaults in a tucked po ...

vault with a score of 15.1 (D-7, Ex- 8.1). With this attempt she became the fifth gymnast to ever execute the Produnova, just after legendary gymnast

Oksana Chusovitina Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (russian: Оксана Александровна Чусовитина; born 19 June 1975) is an eight-time Olympic gymnast who has competed for the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, and Germany. Chusovitina's career a ...

, who executed it multiples times. In October

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Karmakar became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for a final stage at the

World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships are the world championships for artistic gymnastics governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). The first edition of the championships was held in 1903, exclusively for male gymnas ...

. Later in 2016 when she qualified for

Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

, she became the first Indian gymnast to do so and also hours after her qualification at

2016 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event The 2016 Olympic Gymnastics Test Event, known officially as Aquece Rio 2016, served as the final qualifier to the gymnastics events at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Concerns and criticisms During the test event the FIG (In ...

she clinched a gold medal in the Women's vault event stunning

with her Prudunova again who came second to her. On 6 July 2016,

FIG The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

honored Dipa by naming her World Class Gymnast. At Rio Olympics, she achieved 4th place in vaults. After a long break due to injury when she ran for vaults and landed with a gold at World Challenge Cup series. Her medal is one of the first medals won by any Indian at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup, second only to Aruna Reddy's bronze for individual vaults at

Artistic Gymnastics World Cup The Artistic Gymnastics World Cup is a competition series for artistic gymnastics sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). It is one of the few tournaments in artistic gymnastics officially organized by FIG, as well as ...

Melbourne.

Total medals won by Indian Gymnasts in Major tournaments

Notable Performance at Summer Olympics

Notable gymnasts

* Sham Lal * Madhusudhan Saha *

Mantu Debnath Mantu Debnath (also spelt as Montu Debnath) is an Indian Bengali gymnast from Agartala, Tripura. He won gold medals at national level competition, became the first Indian gymnast to win an international competition in Russia in 1969 and won th ...

* Sunita Sharma * Krupali Patel * Kalpana Debnath * Ashish Kumar * Dipa Karmakar * Pranati Nayak *

siddharth nigam Siddharth Nigam is an Indian actor who works in Indian television and films. He is known for his role as young Sahir and Samar in ''Dhoom 3'', young Mauryan prince Ashoka in Colors TV's ''Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat'', Prince Bindusara in Sta ...

Total medals won by Indian Gymnasts in Major tournaments

Notable Performance at Summer Olympics

Notable gymnasts

Notable coaches

References

External links