Dipa Karmakar under 'house-arrest' before Rio vault finals

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar's big day is just four days away. Dipa's long-time coach Bishweshwar Nandi has kept the newly-turned 23-year-old under house-arrest at the Rio Olympic Village so that Dipa's focus does not shift from the vault finals. 

Nandi, who thought her birthday celebrations can be saved for later, took away her sim and only allowed her parents to wish her. "By the time she will finish, it will be August 15 in India - a medal in gymnastics can be the greatest Independence Day gift to the nation. We can have her birthday celebration then," Nandi told PTI. 

The athlete, according to her coach, doesn't get affected when not allowed to talk to her friends. Due to her busy training schedules, she has a very small friend circle.

She is the first Indian woman gymnast to have qualified for the vault finals at the Olympics.

The entire nation has pinned their hopes for its first medal from Dipa's event on August 14. If she wins the medal, her name will be forever etched in India history as the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics.

Her preferred choice of the deadly Produnova vault has the highest degree of difficulty for a women's vault. Nandi has suggested that every manoeuvre in gymnastics is very accident-prone. Dipa, however, has mastered the Produnova so the contingent is very hopeful of a medal.