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Dipa worked very hard. She did not have the space to train in or the right

equipment to practise on. In fact, her coach Bisheshwar Nandi used parts

of cars and other vehicles to make equipments for her training. At the end
of the day, after practice, her bones and muscles hurt. This often made her

moody and hungry. Like other children, she loved ice-cream but she could

not get any, because she needed to take a healthy diet. Often she had to

live and train in a sports hostel, far away
from home. Apart from all of this, she also

had to write her exams!

Dipa won many gymnastic competitions.
Sadly, she did not win anything at the

2010 Commonwealth Games. But she

did not stop trying. Dipa came third at
the 2014 Commonwealth Games and

the 2015 Hiroshima Asian Gymnastics

Championship.
In 2016, Dipa was ready to show her skills

to the world at the Olympic Games in Rio

de Janeiro. She was going to do the Produnova vault.
It was very difficult and only four other women in the world had been able

to do it successfully.

Dipa did it! Though she missed winning a medal by just 0.15 point, she did

so well that people all over the world were amazed.
She has won important awards like the Khel Ratna and the Padma Shri.

After her wonderful performance in the Olympics, Dipa won the gold medal

in the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup, held in July 2018 in

Turkey. She continues to make India proud.
—Sreelata Menon

Olympic Games — a sports competition held every four years in which

countries from all over the world take part; Produnova vault — a very difficult
and dangerous gymnastic movement.

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