And that's how Dipa won!

Despite Simone Biles bagging Gold at Rio Olympics, it was Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar who was trending on social media

August 15, 2016 04:44 am | Updated October 18, 2016 12:57 pm IST

Dipa Karmakar might have finished fourth in women's vault gymnastics event at Rio Olympics on Sunday, but she won the hearts with her Produnova.

Ms. Karmakar became the household name after she qualified for the 2016 Olympics — the first Indian gymnast to achieve the feat. Expectations were running high that this Tripura woman would end India's drought for a medal at Rio, after she made it to the finals by finishing eighth.

She began trending in Google and across social media even before the actual event. When Dipa herself took to Twitter saying "Sorry to 1.3 billion people," it was retweeted several thousand times. Many replied to her how they stayed awake to watch the game and how it was "the very first time in life" they were watching the sport.

Wishes poured in from cross section of people including sports icons, politicians and celebrities.

With August 15 being the nation's 70th Independence Day, the reference to former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's famous I-Day speech was obvious.

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India wakes up to the legend of #DipaKarmakar," several people tweeted.

A usually divisive Twitteratti stood together this time, thanks to Ms. Karmakar.

Cricketer Virender Sehwag made the full use of 140 characters by wishing her as well as taking a dig at the lack of patronage to gymnastics in the country.

What's in a name? Lots

Caught unaware of the unusually spelt name, several tweets mentioned her as 'Deepa'. Actually the word 'Deepa' was briefly trending when Karmakar moved to the second place soon after finishing her vault. The hopes of a medal came down crashing when Maria Paseka of Russia and Biles performed after Karmakar.

Another goof-up was made by Sports Minister Vijay Goel, who incorrectly tweeted her name as 'Dipa Karmanakar' only to delete the tweet later.

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