The skies lit up over Salt Lake City as the athletes marched into the Ice Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the 19^th Winter Olympics. Among the 2500 athletes were two from South Asia – Shiva Keshavan from India and Jayaram Khadka of Nepal. Soon after the ceremony was over, Jay Leno, in his nightly show, was quick to point out that India, a nation of 1.1 billion people, was represented by just one lone athlete. A very relevant western question it was – but those who have lived in the Indian subcontinent will appreciate why it was so. India, Nepal and Pakistan have the highest mountains in the world within their geographical boundaries – but not the resources to harness the slopes of these mountains for fun and sports.

For twenty year old Shiva Keshavan , this was his second Olympics in the Luge (French for sled) singles competition. He had already represented India four years ago at Nagano (Japan) as a 16 year old – in the same event.(In the luge singles competition, athletes take four runs and the fastest total time determines the winner. The athletes travel feet first on this fibreglass/wood sled, down the course, along which are two steel runners. Luges can reach speeds of 90 mph or more and weigh approximately 23 kgs.)

In a country where skiing is still a novelty, Shiva finds he "… still has to explain what a luge is." He was still at Lawrence School, Sanawar when The International Luge Federation came looking for potential talent in tropical countries. As a resident of Manali in Himachal Pradesh, Shiva was familiar with skiing. He went to a selection camp and visibly impressed the coaches with his run on an asphalt road, who then chose him to attend a training course in Austria. (A strong genetic pool may have also helped Shiva – his father Sudhakaran Keshavan is Malayali and his mother Rosalina an Italian.)This was at the end of 1997 – and the Nagano Olympics were only a few months away. With barely four months of training, Shiva represented India in the 1998 Winter Olympics and was ranked 28^th among the 34 contestants and was only 10 seconds total time behind the winner!! One certainly does not have to win to be an Olympian. At Salt Lake City last month Shiva was only 7 seconds total time behind the winner Armin Zoeggeler – in other words just a second or so slower than the winner in each of the four runs. He was placed 33^rd out of the 50 competitors – no mean feat considering the limitations and constraints under which he gets to train. The fact that he even got to qualify for the Olympics is a big achievement under the circumstances. "You have to be within 7% of the world mark", Shiva explains.

Sportsmen and women normally get admission into colleges of repute and also find sponsors on the basis of their achievements. However, being an Olympian was not enough for Shiva to be offered a place in any of the colleges in Delhi " I realised that if you play cricket you are god, otherwise..." Shiva lost an academic year, nor was he able to raise funds within India. He decided to go to Italy for his University education, where he is now studying at the University of Florence for a degree in Political Science, and hoping to train with the Italian Luge team. (The Indian Olympic Association failed to get him an Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsorship to study and train abroad.)

The main reason for poor representation of developing countries in the Winter Olympic games is lack of funds. There are no training facilities and no equipment to train with, which means athletes like Shiva need funds to practice abroad. Shiva’s $2000 sled is an old model – not the state-of-the-art sleds used by competitors from Europe or the US

"The biggest challenge for luge players, like jet pilots, is mastering the centrifugal force. At times, the track rises like a wall and it is this force that pushes you. Since one is lying down, "One has to know the track in the mind."