Shiva Keshavan

{{Infobox sportsperson

| name = Shiva Keshavan

| honorific-suffix = {{postnominal|OLY}}[https://olympians.org/olympians/olympians-for-life/ Olympians: Olympians for Life] – website of the WOA

| image = 2017-12-01 Shiva Keshavan by Sandro Halank–02.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Keshavan in 2017

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1981|08|25}}

| birth_place = Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India

| death_date =

| death_place =

| turnedpro = 1998

| website = [http://www.shivakeshavan.in/ website]

| country = {{IND}}

| sport = File:Luge pictogram.svg Luge

| event = Men´s singles

| pb = 134.3km/h

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry|{{IND}}}}

}}

Shiva Keshavan (born 25 August 1981) is an Indian luger. A six-time Olympian, he is the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. He set a new Asian speed record at {{convert|134.3|km/h|mph|abbr=on}} after beating the previous record of {{convert|131.9|km/h|mph|abbr=on}} and won a gold medal in the 2011 Asian Luge Cup at Nagano in Japan.

Career

Keshavan skied as a child and won the Junior National Ski Championship in 1995 at the age of 14. At the age of 15, he attended a luge camp at his school conducted by world champion Günther Lemmerer.{{cite web|title=OLYMPICS: NAGANO 1998; Teen-Age Luger Carries All of India|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/03/sports/olympics-nagano-1998-teen-age-luger-carries-all-of-india.html|work=New York Times|date=3 February 1998}} Keshavan was selected as a promising young athlete and went on to become the youngest person to ever officially qualify for the Olympic Games in luge, attending the 1998 Nagano games at the age of 16.

In 2014, Keshavan walked as an Independent Olympic Participant at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi due to the suspension of the Indian Olympic Association. However, later on during the Sochi Winter Olympics, Indian Olympic Association made a comeback as a recognized country by the International Olympic Committee resulting in Keshavan competing under the Indian flag.

Beginning in November 2014, Keshavan collaborated with Duncan Kennedy to train for 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Duncan acted as Keshavan’s personal coach while leveraging his technical expertise to improve Keshavan’s sled.

Keshavan qualified for his sixth and final Olympics in 2018,{{cite news|last=Bhatt |first=Gaurav|date=14 January 2018|title=Shiva Keshavan: India's lion in winter|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/shiva-keshavan-indias-lion-in-winter-olympics-2018-5023498/|work=The Indian Express|location=Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India|access-date=14 January 2018}} where he finished 34th out of 40 athletes in the men's singles event.{{cite web|title=Luge Result Men's Singles|url=https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang-2018/results/en/luge/result-men-s-singles-fnl-000400-.htm|work=Olympic.org|date=11 February 2018}}

In 2014 Shiva Keshavan became the founder-president of the Olympians Association of India and is committed to support the Olympic movement in India.

In 2020, Keshavan was appointed as the chief coach and the High-Performance Director of the national luge team by the Luge Federation of India.{{Cite web |last=PTI |date=2020-08-03 |title=Luge Federation appoints Keshavan as coach and High Performance Director |url=https://sportstar.thehindu.com/other-sports/luge-federation-appoints-keshavan-as-coach-and-high-performance-director/article32259257.ece |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Sportstar |language=en}}

Shiva now aims at promoting Winter Games in India, and creating an ecosystem to produce more athletes competing at the highest level.

Training

In 2002, the Italian luge team offered Keshavan full use of their coaches and training facilities if he competed under the Italian flag, but he did not take the offer, insisting he wanted to continue representing India.{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/01/magazine/winter-olympics-luge-india.html |title= The Lonely, Starry-Eyed Mission of India's Sole Luger |work= New York Times |date=1 February 2018|access-date=1 February 2018}} "For me the dream was to get the Olympics to my hometown, and that was the only reason I was doing it. To show that we are also here."

Keshavan often speaks in interviews about his struggles to finance his career. Early in his career, he would borrow sleds for his races. After landing in Montreal for the 2002 games, he hitchhiked to Salt Lake City. In 2006, he did not compete for two seasons due to running out of funds. Keshavan gets most of his money from crowdfunding on the Internet and in the 2014 Sochi games, his uniform bore the names of 50,000 donors.

Personal life

Keshavan is the son of an Indian father from Kerala and an Italian mother, who met while backpacking in the Himalayas in the 1970s. His parents run an Italian restaurant in Himachal Pradesh. He was born and brought up in Manali, Himachal Pradesh and attended The Lawrence School, Sanawar.{{cite web |url= http://www.india-today.com/ttoday/062000/luge.htm |title= Shiva Keshavan |publisher= india-today.com |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20010224000439/http://www.india-today.com/ttoday/062000/luge.htm |archivedate= 2001-02-24}} He married Namita Agarwal, a former classmate at school, who is also his sports manager. The couple have a daughter. He studied humanities and political science at the University of Florence and received a Master's degree in International relations from the University of Florence.

Keshavan spends time promoting the cause of winter sports in India; a grassroots level luge camp was held in India by Keshavan in 2009 for young athletes interested in trying the sport.{{cite news |url= https://vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Indian+luger+Shiva+Keshavan+defines+makeshift+2010+Games/2195118/story.html |title= Indian luger Shiva Keshavan defines 'makeshift' for 2010 Games |work= Vancouver Sun |first= Kim |last= Bolan |date= 2009-11-06 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20091110003912/http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Indian+luger+Shiva+Keshavan+defines+makeshift+2010+Games/2195118/story.html |archivedate= 2009-11-10}} Ten were selected to form the Junior National Luge team to train in Japan. Since then, around 200 Indian children have attended his training camps, and after retiring from competition Keshavan plans to focus on recruiting new Indian winter athletes.

Awards and achievements

Arjuna Award, Government of India - 2020 - First Winter Sport athlete to win the award
NDTV Outstanding performer of the year award- winner, 2012
Asian Luge cup – Gold Medal, 2011 & 2012
Asian Luge cup – Silver Medal, 2009
Asian Luge cup – Bronze Medal, 2005 & 2008
Youngest luge Olympian in history - 1998 Winter Olympics
First Indian luger to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games
President of Olympians Association of India
Member of Athletes' Commission and Ethics Committee with Indian Olympic Association
Member of State Sports Council, Himachal Pradesh
Past WADA Ambassador

2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics results

class="wikitable" style="font-size:100%"
rowspan="2"\|Athlete ! rowspan="2"\|Event !colspan=2\|Run 1 !colspan=2\|Run 2 !colspan=2\|Run 3 !colspan=2\|Run 4 !colspan=2\|Total
style="font-size:100%" !Time !Rankings !Time !Rankings !Time !Rankings ! Time !Rankings !Time !Rankings
align=center \|align=left\|Shiva Keshavan \|align=left\|Men's singles \|50.578 \|36 \|48.710 \|31 \|48.900 \|30 \|colspan=2\|Eliminated \|2:28.188 \|34

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rowspan="2"|Athlete

! rowspan="2"|Event

!colspan=2|Run 1

!colspan=2|Run 2

!colspan=2|Run 3

!colspan=2|Run 4

!colspan=2|Total

style="font-size:100%"

!Time

!Rankings

!Time

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!Rankings

align=center

|align=left|Shiva Keshavan

|align=left|Men's singles

|50.578

|36

|48.710

|31

|48.900

|30

|colspan=2|Eliminated

|2:28.188

|34

Popular culture

Keshavan gained some fame after a training session during which he fell off his sled and yet managed to climb back on and complete the run; the video of the training run was shared widely on the internet.{{cite web|title=Indian luger Shiva Keshavan crashes, then makes amazing save|url=http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/indian-luger-shiva-keshavan-crashes-then-makes-amazing-save?ctx=top-moments|work=NBCOlympics.com|accessdate=7 February 2014|archive-date=7 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140207113522/http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/indian-luger-shiva-keshavan-crashes-then-makes-amazing-save?ctx=top-moments|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Indian Luger Shiva Keshavan becomes overnight Sensation at Sochi|url=http://news.biharprabha.com/2014/02/indian-luger-shiva-keshavan-becomes-overnight-sensation-at-sochi/|work=IANS|publisher=news.biharprabha.com|accessdate=8 February 2014}}{{cite AV media |url-status = live |archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/HhGrpCM7Liw |archive-date = 2021-12-11| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGrpCM7Liw |title = 70 MPH(113 km/h) Luge Crash and Amazing Recovery - Shiva Keshavan |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}