Commonwealth Games 2018: After step-motherly treatment, India's best rhythmic gymnast Meghana Gundlapally excels in exile

Two years back, a girl from Tripura made India proud with her death-defying Produnova vaults, as she became the first Indian female gymnast to participate in an Olympic event. Today, we all know her as Dipa Karmakar.

The year 2018 saw the rise of yet another gymnast in India. Meghana Reddy created history yet again, as she became the first rhythmic gymnast from the country to qualify for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Meghana had been captivated by gymnastics at the early age of 10 while watching the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It was during this tournament, that she actually went up to her parents and told them that this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

A non-existent sport

While her parents were enthusiastic about their daughter willing to take up rhythmic gymnastics, the fact that she was trying to make her way into a relatively non-existent sport in India, brought along with it, its own set of problems.

"Rhythmic gymnastics is not a very popular sport in India, so we don’t have coaches of that high level there," Meghana said over the phone to Sportskeeda from the USA, where she is currently training. "So once I decided to start training, my parents sent me abroad, and I’ve been training outside India ever since."

Meghana Reddy Gundlapally has been training abroad since 2011.

Since 2011, she has been training in various countries like USA, Greece and Uzbekistan. Having done this for more than seven years now, Meghana accepts that she does miss her family on certain occasions. However, her hunger and her drive to keep performing better, pushes her on.

"I do miss my family on these long trips abroad, but then again, I am getting to do something that I love to do. So I really don’t have much to complain about, with this regard," she said.

Most recently, Meghana has been training under Greek coach and former Olympian Varvara Filiou in both USA and Greece, ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

A four-time world champion and 14-time Greek champion Varvara has managed to make a lot of difference in Meghana's levels.

"Meghana is lucky that her parents are willing to invest so much in her training regime," said Filiou. "In the last eight months that she has trained with me, she has improved so much that in the qualifiers she was eight points ahead of the girl who came second."

An "irresponsible" federation at the helm

Being the first Indian rhythmic gymnast to make it to the Commonwealth Games, a lot of hopes rest on Meghana's shoulders at the moment. She herself admits that CWG qualification was a big step in her career as a professional gymnast.

"CWG qualification was a big moment for me. This was the whole reason why I started gymnastics, and this is what I've been working on for the past eight years," she said.

Meghana has been training under former Olympian Varvara Filiou for the last 8 months.

However, being a pioneer comes with its own set of difficulties. Due to the lack of infrastructure in rhythmic gymnastics in the country, Meghana has had to look outside, in order to improve herself.

"Rhythmic gymnastics is not a well-recognized sport in India, so we don’t get much support from the government," she said. "Also, there’s no real medal prospect in rhythmic gymnastics from India at the moment. This further decreases the visibility of the sport."

The chicken or egg conundrum

One of the biggest problems that rhythmic gymnasts in India face is the lack of competitive events, where they could pit their skills against other top athletes from around the country or the world.

To solve this issue, Meghana believes that the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) needs to send more of the Indians to train and compete in tournaments abroad.

"Firstly, the federation should really help the young gymnasts by sending them to competitions. Since there are not many competitions in India, we do not get to improve," she said.

"Competing and training are completely different things. The more experience you have in competitions, the easier it would be for you to compete at a higher level," said Meghana.

"This is the same reason why I haven’t got any funding from the government yet. Since there are no competitions there, they don’t know that there are quality rhythmic gymnast out there," she explained.

"It's a chicken-and-egg situation, really. If they don't host competitions, talented athletes don't get to compete, and if they don't compete, the federation won't know who to fund for future tournaments," she said.

Meghana's coach Varvara, however, lays the blame squarely on the GFI for the lack of rhythmic gymnastics talent in India.

Varvara Filiou feels that the the GFI needs to send more rhythm gymnasts to train and compete abroad.

"As Meghana’s coach, I feel that the federation is irresponsible," said Filiou. "In other countries, the federations not only hold competitions and camps but also provides for the athletes to go abroad to train and to participate in foreign tournaments.

"But in Meghana’s case, its just been me and her parents, who have been trying to do everything."

Bearing the expenses for their daughter to compete in international tournaments is no mean feat.

"There are a lot of expenses involved in sending an athlete to any tournament," explained Filiou. "Firstly there's the travel expenses of not just the athlete, but also the coach and the trainer. So essentially, they are spending on three people's travels all around the world.

"To add to that there are various other expenses like diet, training, equipment, hotels, and even registration fees for the tournaments, that need to be taken care of," she said. "How can one do it all alone? Meg is lucky, but what about the others?"

Despite these difficulties, however, Meghana and her parents have shown great resolve to march on and realise the rhythmic gymnastics dream of India.

Just like Dipa Karmakar's exploits in the 2014 Commonwealth and Asian Games, and in Rio 2016, Meghana Reddy also has the chance to inspire a new and previously unforeseen generation of rhythmic gymnasts in India, with good performances in CWG. Will she be able to bring more glories to her country? We shall know in a few weeks.