For 38-year-old Shiva Keshavan, it took six Winter Olympics, career spanning over 22 years and many Asian and world records to fetch Arjuna Award, the very first National Sports Award in the winter sports category. Be it skiing, snowboarding, luge or any other winter sports, no athlete had won a national sports award until Saturday when country’s only professional luger Shiva Keshavan was awarded with Arjuna Award for his contribution to the winter sports. Keshwan, the fastest man on ice in Asia, received this award from the President Ram Nath Kovind in a virtual ceremony at Delhi on Saturday. Resident of Manali, Shiva Keshavan is six-time Olympian and recipient of 10 medals including four gold in international luge championships. He sustained his career as a professional luger for 22 years mostly by crowdfunding and could not participate in any championship for two years due to financial crisis. He was among the 29 athletes who were recommended for Arjuna award by Union Sports Ministry. Shiva Keshavan was the youngest athlete in the world to qualify for 1998 Winter Olympics in luge at age of just 16. Since then, he participated in consecutive six Olympics. He has won four gold, four silver and two bronze in Asian Championships in Nagano, Japan and Altenberg, Germany from 2005 to 2017. Shiva Keshavan still holds the unbeatable Asian speed record of 134.3 km per hour. This is why he is called the fastest man on the ice in Asia. While other athletes received national sports award in well known sports, this is for the first time that government recognised a winter athlete for this award. As a sport, very few people in India have heard about luge. Despite being the first Indian to win award in international sports and even setting Asian records, Keshavan has
For 38-year-old Shiva Keshavan, it took six Winter Olympics, career spanning over 22 years and many Asian and world records to fetch Arjuna Award, the very first National Sports Award in the winter sports category. Be it skiing, snowboarding, luge or any other winter sports, no athlete had won a national sports award until Saturday
Six-time Olympian and recipient of 10 medals including four gold in international luge championships, Shiva Keshavan, who sustained his career as professional luger for 22 years mostly by crowdfunding, has been recommended for Arjuna award. A resident of Manali, the 38-year-old Keshavan, is among the 29 athletes who have been recommended for the Arjuna award by the National Sports Awards Selection Committee of Union Sports Ministry. While other athletes have been recommended for the award in well-known sports, this is for the first time that government is awarding an athlete for luge, a sport about which very few people in India have heard. Keshavan is presently president of the Olympians Association of India and chief coach of the national team by Luge Federation of India. He was the first Indian to ever win an international medal in winter sports and is the only athlete from the country to qualify for Olympics in luge. “Finally years of my hard work is getting recognition. I think I could have done better if I had government support since the very beginning of my career. I am thankful to the members of the selection committee for giving me this opportunity. It means a lot to me. Hopefully, this will help in the improvement of the winter sports infrastructure in the country,” Shiva Keshavan said. The story of Shiva Keshavan qualifying for the Winter Olympics for the first time in 1998 till being recommended for this prestigious award is full of struggle and hard work. Though he participated in over 100 world championships, Asian Cups and other international tournaments but always remained in the financial crisis for his sports gears, travel and training expenses. He could not participate in any championship for two years due to lack of funding. Given his skills and zeal for
Six-time Olympian and recipient of 10 medals including four gold in international luge championships, Shiva Keshavan, who sustained his career as professional luger for 22 years mostly by crowdfunding, has been recommended for Arjuna award. A resident of Manali, the 38-year-old Keshavan, is among the 29 athletes who have been recommended for the Arjuna award
Unacquainted with conventional games in their childhood and devoting the time in romancing with snow, many generations of countryside villages of Manali have left no stone unturned to turn their land into mini Europe where people worship skiing as their deities. The villages have now become the wellspring of professional skiers for India, with over 70 children and youth having participated in international skiing events only in last few years! The journey from homemade wooden skis to the Winter Olympics has been remarkable. Neglected by government but supported by natural skiing slopes, children, who never played hide and seek, gilli danda or cricket, spend a large amount of their capital in buying expensive skis and obtaining technical training. Children who cannot afford expensive pair of skis have enough knowledge that how to make temporary ski with help of timber fitted with pieces of steel blade on its base to reduce friction. Blades are generally stolen from saw mill. Burua, Shanag, Palchan, Solang, Ruar, Kulang, Goshal and Kothi villages in upper Manali have long list of success stories in winter games which has not only brought laurels to the country but is also a mean of healthy bread to hundreds of families. Lack of money forced youths to make wooden-skis at home in early days and now these youths are representing Indian team in all international events, including Winter Olympics. Though the Indian national ski team which is new to the professional winter sports and which mostly has skiers from Manali villages could not perform extraordinary in international events so far but the lone luger of the country Shiva Keshavan who hails from Vashisht, a small village near Manali, has set an Asian speed record and has grabbed three gold in Asian Luge Championships in Japan. His latest gold came in December 2016. As India does not has any luge track, he had
Unacquainted with conventional games in their childhood and devoting the time in romancing with snow, many generations of countryside villages of Manali have left no stone unturned to turn their land into mini Europe where people worship skiing as their deities. The villages have now become the wellspring of professional skiers for India, with over 70 children and youth
