Jr gymnastics national champion, Mann Kothari, aims to represent India at 2028 LA Olympics

New Delhi: After being crowned junior national champion in the men's artistic gymnastics at the All Age Group National Gymnastics Championships 2024-25 in Surat recently, the 17-year-old Mann Kothari is aiming to replicate the success in the senior category before fulfilling his dream of representing India in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Talking about his competition in the junior nationals, Kothari highlighted the progress of the sport in recent years with the introduction of foreign coaches by state teams and the upgradation of infrastructure in the country.

"The competition itself was tough. Even though gymnastics is still not a very big sport in India. But it is really developing, the level is rising very quickly because there are a lot of investments in gymnastics that is happening. Like Odisha and UP have an international coach who comes from outside to coach, it's been a couple of years. So, they've had international coaches and some cities are building new infrastructure for gymnastics. Even I went to the UK for training for six months last year," Kothari told IANS during a virtual interaction.

The teenager, who started gymnastics at the tender age of five, hails from Mumbai and has been training at Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul in Vile Parle.

"I started gymnastics when I was five in Singapore. Then I won some invitational competitions. I developed an interest there. Then we shifted to India. And since then I've been practising at Prabodhankar Thackeray Krida Sankul (PTKS) in Mumbai. The coach there is Vishal sir and Shailendra sir. I train mainly under Vishal sir. I had also played in the national competition in the sub-junior category," Kothari elaborated.

The youngster had also played in the 2023 Khelo India Youth Games and won silver and bronze medals. Kothari shared how the exposure in Khelo India uplifted him and opened up new avenues.

"Khelo India was a good experience and I even won medals but it was my first national junior competition. So, it was a really good experience. I got to know my competitors literally with what they were doing and what stage I needed to reach to win a medal at the junior national," he said.

"Right now, it is a little bit tough but I think with more and more infrastructure coming and getting foreign coaches, it is definitely hard but it's still possible to reach the international level with the dedication. Khelo India has been a huge support. The exposure first of all is really good and second of all you have camps in Delhi to get train at Khelo India camp. I go to training in Pune because the facility is good out there. That has recently become a Khelo India Centre and the facility is very good out there. I get scholarships which help me to go abroad and train in the UK," Kothari added.

When asked about his role model in gymnastics, the teenager picked seven-time Olympic medallist Japanese artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura as his inspiration. Kothari has set the target of qualifying in the 2028 LA Olympics.

"My role model is Kohei Uchimura. He's a Japanese gymnast and he's won the world championship multiple times and also won seven medals in the Olympics. He's my role model and my target is to qualify for the 2028 Olympics and then win a medal for India at the 2036 Olympics," he said.

Kothari underscored how Dipa Karmakar's qualification in the 2016 Rio Olympics inspired youngsters like him to excel in gymnastics. She became the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games and missed a medal by just 0.15 points in the vault event. She is also among the very few gymnasts in the world who have been successful at landing the famous Produnova vault.

"It was inspirational, the first gymnast from India to represent at the Olympics was a huge deal and I want to be the first one to do it in men's artistic gymnastics because no one until now has done the same thing in men's artistic gymnastics," Kothari remarked.

He added that lack of exposure and scarcity of experienced coaches are the biggest hurdles for budding gymnasts in the country. "The Gymnastics Federation of India doesn't send too many people for any international competition so there is very little exposure and the other is coaching because the coaches are not very experienced. We kind of struggle to really find the technique but I think with the international coaches coming and helping a little bit, it will become easier for the athletes and even the coaches to understand what that technique is really about. Then there's infrastructure which is improving."

Kothari is next targeting to qualify for the Asian Gymnastics Championships in Jecheon, South Korea later this year and represent India in the continental competition.

"I'll be having my Asian championship qualifiers and then representing India is the next step by qualifying for the Asians which is in Korea in June," he said.