While the memory of losing an Olympic medal by just 0.15 of a point in Sunday's vault final continues to haunt Dipa Karmakar, the 23-year-old knows what she achieved in Rio could be the start of something big for Indian gymnastics, reports Reuters.

"I want to inspire the next generation so that in 10 to 15 years, India can send a full gymnastics team to an Olympics and not just one athlete," Karmakar told Reuters in an interview in the athletes' village before heading home to India on Thursday.

When Karmakar and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi embarked on their dream, they had no funding, no equipment and no guidance. All they had was a determination to succeed and a brainwave to build makeshift apparatus from a pile of crash mats and discarded parts of a second-hand scooter.

"Up until three months ago I was using out-of-date equipment. Even now we still do not have the Olympic standard balance beam and uneven bars in India," explained Karmakar, who was one of only two competitors in Rio to attempt the high-risk Produnova vault.

Just how oblivious Indians are about gymnastics was clear on Sunday when a throng of reporters bombarded Karmakar with questions such as:

"Couldn't you have done the landing better?"