In 2016, when Dipa Karmakar finished fourth in the Rio Olympicsnot only her performance lives in the memory of Indian sports fans, but also the term ‘Produnova’ has remained.
The combination of Dipa and Produnova created a wave that many believe will inspire generations to plunge into gymnastics in the country. Although the sport has been in the country for years, Dipa is the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics.
But, four years later, that was it Pranati Nayak who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. For Paris, India will not send a gymnastic message. The advantage is gone.
Eight years since Rio, not much has changed in the sport. Gymnastics offers 55 medals at the Olympics, but India is yet to take the chance.
Derecognition of the federation and political chaos
President of Indian Gymnastics Federation (GFI), Sudhir Mittal, agreed that the political mess and the derecognition of the federation by the sports ministry for almost 10 years took sports a few steps back.
The work of the country’s top gymnastics body was marred by a feud between two factions that led to the derecognition of the federation in 2011.
“Yes, political problems everywhere limit the progress of the sport. I will not blame it on the political uncertainty, because there are other factors that delay the development of the sport. I will say that the expensive equipment and different categories. Sports make tournaments it was a very difficult task to buy the equipment, so only a few state associations volunteered to host the Nationals,” Mittal said.
Commonwealth Games champion Pranati Nayak seconds Mittal. “I can see now the juniors are performing well. But they are getting facilities only in some centers. Bhubaneswar has very good facilities but I have not seen any other country and I can see there is a lot of improvement needed in terms of training. facilities and equipment,” said Pranati.
He recalls that he missed the music system when he started in 2002-03 in Kolkata. “When I started, there was no music system in our training center in Kolkata, we got it only in 2021. Choreography is important for gymnasts,” Pranati added.
Stagnant growth, slow progress
Tanvi Jindal Shete, founder of Leap Gymnastics at JSW Sports, feels that the lack of a structured approach has hurt the prospects Indian gymnastics much. “It doesn’t have a structured approach. In gymnastics, unless you have been practicing since the age of 5, the system does not allow you to succeed. Suppose I was 8-9 years old and decided to take gymnastics. , it was very difficult for me to succeed in the system because the skills are difficult developed, when I developed it, I was not eligible to participate in that category, because many children who may be interested in gymnastics do not take up the sport,” said Tanvi.
Lack of good judges and conflict of interest
Another problem hampering the progress of Indian gymnastics is the lack of qualified judges. Tanvi highlighted the need to have international level judges to improve the standard of the sport. “The training of coaches and judges in India needs this time, because gymnastics is a subjective sport. The judges judge athletes based on difficulty and execution. While India has shown progress in difficulty, for example Deepa Karmakar and Pranati Nayak have high D scores, poor execution because they lose a lot of points in the execution which prevents them from advancing, and good judges can point out problems at the national level,” Tanvi said.
Kym Dowell, former vice-president of the technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation, feels that not only gymnasts, but also technical officials should be trained through a systematic program in India. “You don’t have someone representing India at the Paris Games because you only have one or two (top gymnasts). You have to have a lot to come through the system,” the Australian said.
He felt that in India, many coaches act as judges during competitions. “In India, many coaches are judges. In Australia, we have judges who only judge. They should stay in their roles.”
The combination of Dipa and Produnova created a wave that many believe will inspire generations to plunge into gymnastics in the country. Although the sport has been in the country for years, Dipa is the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics.
But, four years later, that was it Pranati Nayak who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. For Paris, India will not send a gymnastic message. The advantage is gone.
Eight years since Rio, not much has changed in the sport. Gymnastics offers 55 medals at the Olympics, but India is yet to take the chance.
Derecognition of the federation and political chaos
President of Indian Gymnastics Federation (GFI), Sudhir Mittal, agreed that the political mess and the derecognition of the federation by the sports ministry for almost 10 years took sports a few steps back.
The work of the country’s top gymnastics body was marred by a feud between two factions that led to the derecognition of the federation in 2011.
“Yes, political problems everywhere limit the progress of the sport. I will not blame it on the political uncertainty, because there are other factors that delay the development of the sport. I will say that the expensive equipment and different categories. Sports make tournaments it was a very difficult task to buy the equipment, so only a few state associations volunteered to host the Nationals,” Mittal said.
Commonwealth Games champion Pranati Nayak seconds Mittal. “I can see now the juniors are performing well. But they are getting facilities only in some centers. Bhubaneswar has very good facilities but I have not seen any other country and I can see there is a lot of improvement needed in terms of training. facilities and equipment,” said Pranati.
He recalls that he missed the music system when he started in 2002-03 in Kolkata. “When I started, there was no music system in our training center in Kolkata, we got it only in 2021. Choreography is important for gymnasts,” Pranati added.
Stagnant growth, slow progress
Tanvi Jindal Shete, founder of Leap Gymnastics at JSW Sports, feels that the lack of a structured approach has hurt the prospects Indian gymnastics much. “It doesn’t have a structured approach. In gymnastics, unless you have been practicing since the age of 5, the system does not allow you to succeed. Suppose I was 8-9 years old and decided to take gymnastics. , it was very difficult for me to succeed in the system because the skills are difficult developed, when I developed it, I was not eligible to participate in that category, because many children who may be interested in gymnastics do not take up the sport,” said Tanvi.
Lack of good judges and conflict of interest
Another problem hampering the progress of Indian gymnastics is the lack of qualified judges. Tanvi highlighted the need to have international level judges to improve the standard of the sport. “The training of coaches and judges in India needs this time, because gymnastics is a subjective sport. The judges judge athletes based on difficulty and execution. While India has shown progress in difficulty, for example Deepa Karmakar and Pranati Nayak have high D scores, poor execution because they lose a lot of points in the execution which prevents them from advancing, and good judges can point out problems at the national level,” Tanvi said.
Kym Dowell, former vice-president of the technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation, feels that not only gymnasts, but also technical officials should be trained through a systematic program in India. “You don’t have someone representing India at the Paris Games because you only have one or two (top gymnasts). You have to have a lot to come through the system,” the Australian said.
He felt that in India, many coaches act as judges during competitions. “In India, many coaches are judges. In Australia, we have judges who only judge. They should stay in their roles.”
