Shiva Keshavan is one-quarter of India’s Winter Olympics team participating in the games in Torino. Shiva is a luger (lugist?) and this is his third Olympics, but only the first in which he has had other teammates. It must be a bit lonely being the only one on your sport’s national team, but you have to admire his dedication to a sport that requires so much effort to find practice facilities. In his first Olympics, in 1998 in Nagano, he finished 28th of 34 participants. In Salt Lake City, he was 33rd of 48 participants. Shiva finished 25th (of 35 participants) in Torino, not a bad finish, but he boycotted the Opening Ceremonies because he was not appointed as the flagbearer. I’ll have to scold him a bit here, since he was the only choice at the previous two Olympics. Time to give someone else a chance, Shiva! The appointed flagbearer was Alpine skiier Neha Ahuja, the only female member of the team and an interesting story in her own right.
The Indian Winter Olympic Team
(image copyright Reuters)
More from Indian blogger Kamla Bhatt
Results for India at Torino 2006