Top five greatest Indian gymnasts of all-time

Dipa Karmakar is India’s first female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics.

Gymnastics came of age in India, when at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Ashish Kumar won the first-ever medal in gymnastics, he won a bronze medal. Ashish’s coach described the difficulties faced in training, citing the lack of equipment as a significant challenge.

It was the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, from where India’s path in gymnastics started taking shape slowly, when Dipa Karmakar from Tripura, went on to win a bronze medal in the Women’s vault finale and performed the sensational Produnova vault with a score of 15.1.

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The sport took off in the country during the 2016 Rio Olympics when Dipa Karmakar represented India in gymnastics for the first time at the world’s most prestigious sporting event. Despite failing to win a medal, his exploits impressed everyone and inspired the coming generation.

Although there is no dearth of talent in a country with a population of over 1.5 billion, inadequate infrastructure and quality consultants in this field have caused a major loss to India. With this, let’s have a look at the five greatest Indian gymnasts of all time.

5. Mantu Debnath

Coming from Agartala in Tripura, Mantu Debnath became the first-ever Indian gymnast to win an international competition in Russia in 1969. Mantu was the winner of the national gymnastics championship. Also, he won the Arjuna Award in 1975 for his contributions to gymnastics.

Mantu was the first Arjuna awardee from Tripura and the 2nd Indian Arjuna awardee for gymnastics after Sham Lal. Mantu was trained by the great athlete Dalip Singh.

4. Pranati Nayak

Pranati Nayak is an accomplished Indian artistic gymnast, who earned a vault bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Championships. She secured her spot as the third Indian gymnast to achieve an international vault medal, after Dipa Karmakar and Aruna Reddy. With her representation at the 2020 Summer Olympics, she became only the second Indian female gymnast to qualify for the prestigious event.

Notably, Pranati secured the title of the 2019 Indian all-around champion. She has represented India at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2014, 2018, and 2019 Asian Games, and the 2014, 2017, and 2019 World Championships, showcasing her remarkable talent on the global stage.

3. Ashish Kumar

Ashish Kumar played a pivotal role in popularising the sport in the Indian subcontinent, Kumar is responsible for bringing home India’s maiden medal in the sport at the international podium. The Allahabad-born Indian Gymnast won not one but two medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He first won the bronze medal in the floor exercise and followed it with a silver in the men’s vault. His exceptional year continued with yet another bronze in the floor exercise at the 2010 Asian Games. Now a 29-year-old veteran of the game has also won a bronze medal back in 2006 in the Asian Championship.

2. Aruna Reddy

Aruna Reddy etched her name in history at the 2018 Gymnastics World Cup by becoming the first Indian gymnast to win a medal in an individual event. She clinched bronze in the women’s vault, marking the inaugural occasion of playing the Indian National Anthem at the prestigious tournament.

The 23-year-old also represented India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in both individual and team events but could not replicate her World Cup success. Aruna previously competed in the 2013, 2014, and 2017 World Championships, building up to her breakthrough in 2018.

1. Dipa Karmakar

Dipa Karmakar, born on August 9, 1993, in Agartala, Tripura, became one of India’s leading gymnasts. Karmakar’s rise on the international scene began at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where she won a bronze medal in the vault event. In July 2018, Karmakar reached a significant point in her career by winning gold at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Mersin, Turkey.

Also Read: Top five achievements of gymnast Dipa Karmakar

Karmakar continued to build her international medal collection by winning a bronze medal in the vault at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany in 2018. In 2024, Dipa Karmakar made history by winning gold in the women’s vault at the Asian Gymnastics Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, becoming the first Indian gymnast to claim a gold medal at the event.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she scripted history by becoming the first-ever gymnast to represent India at the Games.

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