Dipa Karmakar's historic fourth place finish in Vault final at the Rio Olympics on Sunday drew applause from the entire nation.
The Tripura girl displayed exceptional grit, but missed out on a medal by a narrow margin.
The 22-year old, the first Indian to qualify for a final in gymnastics, was lauded by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan and former cricketer Virender Sehwag.
"Dipa Karmakar .. the pride of India .. your story is what compels us to do better ... and we will !! Many congratulations !!," tweeted Bachchan.
Sehwag’s tweet beautifully summed up her performance at Rio.
"Thank u Dipa Karmakar for getting us united at midnight cheering for Gymnastics, in a country with no infrastructure for this sport. Super Proud!" Sehwag posted.
Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta compared Dipa's performance with that of athletics legends Milkha Singh and PT Usha, who had also finished fourth at the Olympics.
"Milkha (Rome Olympics)/Usha (Los Angeles Olympics) were 4th in track. Dipa Karmakar has done this in gymnastics & is a bigger star," he tweeted.
On a day (Sunday), where most of India's medal hopefuls (Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna, hockey and shooting), fell by the wayside, Dipa's performance won hearts and raised hope for the future.
Dipa scored an average of 15.066 points, a mere 0.15 less than eventual bronze medallist Giulia Steingruber (15.216) of Switzerland.
The gold went to pre-event favourite Simone Biles (15.966) of the United States, who had earlier emerged victorious in the team and all-round events.
Reigning Vault World champion Maria Paseka of Russia took silver with a score of 15.253.
