India’s Vault Queen: Pranati Nayak Talks Medals, Missed Olympics And Motivation

Indian gymnast Praniti Nayak won a medal at the the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2025 in Jecheon, the Republic of Korea earlier this month. It was her third medal at the Asian Gymnastics Championships. She had earlier won bronze medals at in Ulaanbaatar in 2019 and in Doha 2022.

India doesn’t boast of a strong culture in gymnastics. Despite the country not having a rich history in the sport, Praniti has made a name for herself. In 2021 she became only the Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Olympic Games. That year she represented India at the Tokyo Games. She has also featured at the Commonwealth Games and the Asiads.

The 30-year-old gymnast from West Bengal spared time for an exclusive interview with The Sportz Planet where she spoke about her experience of winning the medal in Korea, her journey in the sport and much more.

Excerpts of the interview are below:

You recently won a bronze medal in Vault at the Asian Gymnastics Championships in South Korea. How was the feeling? What were your emotions?

Pranati: I felt very good. I had worked hard. My coach had supported me so much. That I won a medal, I felt happy about it. But I am also slightly disappointed. Because every time I only win a bronze medal. [Pranati has clinched three medals – all bronze in women’s vault – at the continental championship].

Now I want to change the colour of my medal. I want to win silver medals and gold medals.

Sportstar has reported that you have been been added to the Target Asian Games Group (TAGG). How will this benefit you in your career?

Pranati: Actually, my coach has not told me anything about this. If this happens, it will be very good for me. And I will get the support that I always wanted. And I will try to do a little bit of foreign training for the landing and execution that I am missing gold and silver. I want to take a little bit of foreign training. I will try to work upon the skills so that I can start winning gold and silver medals. I want to take full advantage of it by doing foreign training and increasing my execution part.

Q: Speaking of foreign training, is there any specific country where you think you will get good training in gymnastics?

Pranati: My coach is still trying to figure that out. I can’t train where my fellow competitors from Asia practice. I want to train and practice with some good vaulters. I want to see their skills. I want to know some basics from them. How they land? I want to improve on that too. If I train with some good vaulters, my confidence will improve. I will learn something good from them.

Q: Four years ago, you made your Olympic debut. You represented India at the Tokyo Olympics. They were a little different Olympics. Due to the pandemic, there was no audience. People couldn’t come to see from other countries. But Olympics are Olympics. Every athlete wants to represent their country at the Olympics. So when you went to Tokyo, you represented India in gymnastics at the Olympic stage. The biggest sporting stage. So what were your feelings? What were your emotions? Tell us a little about that.

Pranati: During COVID time I was at home for 8 months. My home is in a village. I come from West Bengal’s West Midnapore district. The village doesn’t even have the facility of a multi-gym.

I had completely given up hopes for qualifying for the Olympics. But there was one last event left, a little hope for me. There was Asian Championship. It was possible to qualify for the Olympics from that event. But due to COVID that event got cancelled. But I got a chance because of the two quotas for the Asian countries.

My father helped me at that time. He put up some sticks and ropes at home for me to practice. At home I was taking care of my fitness. I wasn’t aware that I will be going to the Olympics soon. I was only keeping myself fit for the future. I was stuck at my home for about six to seven months. My body weight had increased.

At that stage my father helped me a lot in almost everything. He told me to not break from the inside. He told me that whatever will happen will happen for good. He told me that I am a hope for so many kids in India.

As far as my fitness is concerned, I felt that my fitness level were around 30 to 35% only. I was having home-cooked food. But that is not the food that a sports person needs. The food that we get in a sports hostel is different.

So when I came to know that I am going for the Olympics I felt good. Olympics is everyone’s dream.

But I got only two months to prepare for the Olympics and train. In those months, when I got the COVID vaccine, I got a fever. There were a lot of problems. My body was unable to take so much of load. With great difficulty, I was able to perform well in those two months. But there were no chances of medals.

But I couldn’t enjoy the feeling of going for the Olympics. I did not get that satisfaction of going for the Olympic Games. I did not get the support that I wanted.

But irrespective of the situations, I wanted to perform at the best of my abilities at the Olympics. With such a short practice span, there was a little to no chance for me to qualify for the finals or get a medal. But still it was very emotional moment for me. Because my parents have supported me a lot. It is because of them I am here today.

Also Read: Skating On Hope: Eklavya Jagal’s Relentless Push For Olympic Glory

Q: You could not go for the last year’s Paris Olympics. How did you bounce back from that situation?

Pranati: I came to Bhubaneswar in 2023. Bhubaneswar has a very good center for training. It has one of the best gymnastic training centers for us gymnastics.

In gymnastics Olympic qualification is through FIG World Cup. The qualification process started in February 2024. At the Olympics only two could qualify for the apparatus event. There were four World Cups. In the first World Cup, You qualify based on the points you accumulate in these World Cups. I won the bronze medal in Cairo. All four World Cups were very close by. Our team did not go for the second World Cup in Germany. Third World Cup was in Baku. There I performed well. But there my coach was standing on the podium. He did not know that he should not be standing on the podium. The gymnast are penalized 0.5 points for this offense. Because of this, I did not qualify for the best 8 in the final. If I did not get that penalty, I would have qualified for the fourth place This was the third World Cup. The fourth World Cup was in Doha. In Doha, I could not train well. Because of that there was weight on my ankle. I got an ankle injury. Mentally I knew that based on the scores of just two World Cups I will not be able to qualify for the Olympics. I was injured and I had little hopes.

The next month was the trial of the Asian Championship. But I had a ligament injury. I could go for the last Asian Championship. Only Deepa didi [Dipa Karmakar] went there. I informed that I have an injury and I cannot participate and that was the end of my Olympic journey.

Q: Okay, lets talk about some brighter moments of your career. Which has been the proudest moment of your career so far?

Pranati: Definitely the Olympics. Qualifying for the Olympics is such a big deal. At the Olympic Games I saw Sindhu ma’am (PV Sindhu) very closely. I also saw Saina ma’am (Saina Nehwal) very closely. I was very motivated to see them. We all travelled in the same flight. I felt very good and proud at the time.

I also felt very proud when I won my first international medal. I won it with my coach, who has been with me for a very long time. It was at an event in Mongolia.

So, these two moments, representing India in the Olympics, and your first medal with my coach have made me proud.

Q: Now let’s go back to your childhood. Gymnastics is such a unique sport. In India, most people don’t practice gymnastics. How did you come to know about gymnastics? And why did you choose gymnastics as your career?

Pranati: First of all, I didn’t know that what I was doing in the village was called gymnastics. I thought I was doing yoga. In my village almost all the kids do gymnastics. But there we did not have the facility of a coach or a sports teacher.

I think I have got the skills of gymnastics from my mother came from somewhere. My mother was very flexible in her childhood. We are three sisters but I think I have got these traits. At home I used to stretch or jump around without any coach.

My mother used to be scared that I might end up hurting or injuring myself. It was one teacher from my school who highlighted my skills. Another sir visited my village. He started to train me. He used to train me once or twice every week. So, I learned a little in the next four to five months. Even then, I did not know the basics of of gymnastics.

After that I became a district champion. Then, I competed for the state but did not come first. Then everyone said that I should shift to Kolkata because there weren’t any facilities in my village. There is a big training center in Kolkata and we get good training there. So the teacher of my school along with my father took me to Kolkata and from there I started gymnastics.

Q: Any athlete who were your role models?

Pranati:I wasn’t aware about much of sports when I was a kid. But when I started into gymnastics I came to know about Mary Kom. She has been a big inspiration for me.

Q: Which countries are doing well in gymnastics?

Pranati: America, US, Brazil, Russia, China, Japan, are doing very well. And the gymnasts of Italy are also doing very well.

Q: So what can India learn from these countries to improve in gymnastics?

Pranati: In India we need a lot of good facilities. These facilities are not available in every state. I now have the access to a good facility. We have a very good center in Delhi, IG Stadium. In other states these facilities are not available. There are also some equipments which are not available for us.

Also I start training just two months before any competition. In just two months of training how can we prepare for a medal? We compete with the athletes who train every day.

Q: Okay, Praniti finally, I want you to deliver a message to young girls and boys who aspire to become a gymnast or pick up any other sport

Praniti:I would say that discipline is very important. You have to be disciplined and you have to listen to your coach and move forward.

Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk