Dipa Karmakar's journey from flat feet to making history in gymnastics

In Agartala, Tripura, a five-year-old girl watched gymnastics and fell completely in love with it. She did not have access to a proper gymnasium. She did not have imported equipment or trained coaches or the kind of infrastructure that produces Olympic athletes. What she had was a makeshift vault built from discarded scooter parts and springs, a coach who believed in her, and a stubbornness that would eventually make history. That girl was Dipa Karmakar. And she went on to become India's first female Olympic gymnast the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympics at the 2016 Rio Games, ending a 52-year wait for India in artistic gymnastics at the Games.The flat feet that were supposed to stop herBefore the medals, before the records, before Rio, there was rejection. Dipa was told she could never become a gymnast because of her flat feet.