Take a bow, Dipa Karmakar.

At the tender age of six, India’s premier woman gymnast had flat feet, a big disadvantage for someone in her field. Not letting that come in the way of her dreams, Karmakar trained hard and in 2014, became the first ever woman gymnast from India to win a Commonwealth Games medal. And now in 2015, she has written her name into the record books, becoming the first Indian to qualify for the finals of the World Gymnastics Championships.

Karmakar arrived at the World Championships on the back of an impressive performance at the Asian Championships in 2015 where she won a bronze. With a total of 14.900 in the Vault category, the Arjuna Award winner finished seventh out of eight finalists and will now make her way to the finals where a medal will guarantee her a place in the forthcoming 2016 Rio Olympics.

After winning her historic bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Karmakar had bemoaned the fact that many would compare gymnastics to “circus tricks” and hoped that the sport would receive due recognition. With her impressive list of achievements, Karmakar has become a trailblazer in Indian sport, carrying the torch of gymnastics in India and showing the way forward.