Indian luger Shiva Keshavan defines & ‘makeshift’ for 2010 Games
Indian luger Shiva Keshavan is hoping to carry his country’s flag at the Olympic Winter Games next month in Vancouver, BC.
He will likely get the nod, given that he is the only athlete from India to qualify so far for the 2010 Games. Keshavan arrived last month in Vancouver, where he met an old school friend and went sightseeing, before heading up to Whistler today to try out the Olympic luge track.
“We will all be trying out the track and getting as much practice as we can. It is the fastest track in the world,” Keshavan said in an interview Friday.
There is still no luge track in India, where Keshavan was born 28 years ago 2,500 metres up in the Himalayas.
 “We use the natural facilities, the natural track,” Keshavan explained. “With a few friends we get together. You beat a ski course and you beat a luge course.”
His equipment is about as makeshift as the Indian runs he grooms himself.
After 12 years on the world circuit and a 25th-place finish at the Turin Games, he scored his first sponsors last year — Swiss Air, which flies him to his World Cup events — and Limco, which puts out the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of World Records.
“When they saw my equipment — which is made by myself, compared to the Germans whose equipment is made by Porsche — they helped me to get a few new steels. I still have not got a complete sled. But we are in the process of improving my equipment,” Keshavan said.
His best World Cup finish is 17th, but he figures he would do even better if he had the gear that other nations use.
“I am fairly competitive with the other athletes,” he said. “I don’t usually get to go to all the World Cups, so I lose some points there. A major percentage of my time difference could be made up by equipment and nothing else. That is one of the little frustrating drawbacks.”
Keshavan is often compared to the Jamaican bobsleigh team that competed at the 1988 games and became a crowd favourite. Their story became a Disney film called Cool Runnings.
“I started the exact same way as in that movie: An ex-world champion came to India and held this camp and when I was invited, I knew nothing about it,” he said.
 That was 1995. By 1998 he was competing at the Nagano Olympics with a borrowed sled and an oversized jacket someone had given him.
He is thrilled to be racing in Canada where he is already being warmly received by the Indo-Canadian community.
“For the first time, there is a race in a country that has a sizable Indian population. I am very excited.”
And India too seems to be warming up to the idea that it can compete in winter sports: Keshavan recently received a letter from the government saying it was considering sponsoring him.
A luge camp was held in India last summer for 50 young athletes interested in trying the sport.
“That is a very positive indication for things to come, not just for me but for many of the guys who are just starting out now.”
Perhaps not too long from now, the Winter Olympics will see an Indian luge team. In the meantime, Jawl Developments is proud to support the efforts of Keshavan in the Vancouver Olympics and encourage you to follow him on his Facebook page.
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