# Dipa Karmakar, India’s first female Olympic gymnast, retires 2026-08-07T13:45:33+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Dipa Karmakar, India's first female Olympic gymnast, announced her retirement in October 2024 at age 31 after 25 years in the sport. Born with flat feet in Agartala, Tripura, she was rejected by the Sports Authority of India as unfit. Her coach Bishweshwar Nandi built a vault from discarded scooter parts and springs, and she trained relentlessly to overcome her physical limitation. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she performed the dangerous Produnova vault, finishing fourth by just 0.15 points, ending a 52-year wait for Indian artistic gymnastics at the Games. Karmakar won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and gold at the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Turkey, the first Indian to do so. She received the Padma Shri, Arjuna Award, and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna. Despite multiple knee injuries and surgeries, she returned each time. Her career shattered the belief that flat feet, lack of infrastructure, or small-town origins could limit an Indian sportswoman. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Tags: Dipa Karmakar, flat feet, gymnastics, Produnova vault, retirement, Rio Olympics Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/dipa-karmakar-indias-first-female-olympic-gymnast-retires/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/dipa-karmakar-indias-first-female-olympic-gymnast-retires/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.