Asian Games exclusion demotivating and discouraging: Dipa Karmakar

Excluded from the Indian squad for the Asian Games gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Sports Authority of India SAI and the Sports Ministry for leaving her demotivated and discouraged with their deafening silenceDipa who achieved a historic fourth place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics recently topped the Asian Games trials in her event but was not included in the Indian squad as she didnt fulfil the criteria of a topeight finish in the last 12 monthsIn her case it was not possible as she was serving a twoyear ban due to antidoping violationTwo days after her coach Bisheshwar Nandi lashed out at SAI Dipa took to social media to vent her anger and helplessnessOn this Independence Day I am using my freedom of speech to discuss recent events that have proven to be very demotivating and discouraging The AsianGames2023 an event I have eagerly anticipated for the past two years looks further than it is she wrote on X formerly twitterOn this IndependenceDay I am using my freedom of speech to discuss recent events that have proven to be very demotivating and discouraging The AsianGames2023 an event I have eagerly anticipated for the past two years looks further than it is 1Nmdash Dipa Karmakar DipaKarmakar August 15 2023The government criteria states that athletes performance in individual events during the last 12 months should not fall below the performance achieved by the eighth position holder in the 2018 Asian Games for measurable sportsHowever the Indian mens football team was cleared for participation despite not meeting the criteria after heavy lobbing from IOA secretary general Kalyan Chaubey who is also AIFF presidentAlso Read 2023 Asian Games Full list of qualified Indian athletes at the quadrennial eventDipa however is of the opinion that topping the trials should have been suffice for her inclusionTo my surprise despite topping the national trials and meeting theIndiaSports selection criteria it appears that I will be deprived of the opportunity to participate in the 19thAGofficialWhat has angered her is the lack of communication from authoritiesWorse still the reasons behind this decision are unknown to me and have not been communicated officially Instead my fellow gymnasts and I are left to read about our exclusion from the Games in the news and I simply dont know what to make of itShe urged the authorities to be fair in their assessmentsThe hard work and sacrifice that goes into preparing for major games is rarely appreciated and instead met with uncertainty and deafening silence from Media_SAI and IndiaSports All I ask is for the selection criteria to be applied fairly and consistently across all sportsShe requested the authorities to be transparent and convey the correct information to the athletes She concluded by writing that she is still optimistic about participating in the Hangzhou GamesAnd request that the correct information be conveyed to us so that we dont live in uncertainty In the meanwhile I owe it to my country to continue my training and I am hopeful that I will be joining WeAreTeamIndia in Hangzhou next month Jai hindWith PTI inputs