'Luging thrills me beyond imagination'

GURGAON: The fastest Indian on ice, Shiva Keshavan, was recently in the city and motivated children to take up winter sports, at iSkate, the ice skating rink and café located in Ambience Mall. Shiva is the first Indian to have participated in winter olympics in luge, a sport in which one or two persons use a small sled (luge) and slide face up and feet first.
The 30-year-old, who has represented India in winter olympics since 1998, encouraged children to take up luge as a profession, as he had done. He represented India as the youngest ever luge olympian at the age of 16 and set a new Asian speed record at 134.3 kmph in Asia Cup 2011 at Nagano, Japan. His top speed of 149.9 Kmph (Vancouver Speed record) earned him the title of the 'Fastest Indian on Ice'.
Born to an Italian mother and an Indian father who ran one of the oldest adventure travel agencies in the Himalayas by the name of 'Pan Man Travels', Shiva had always been interested in adventure sports. He grew up in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, the den of Indian winter sports and started skiing around the age of ten. He won his first junior nationals in skiing in 1995-1996. He has studied political science from the University of Florence and received a Master's degree in International relations from the same university.
"I was never really interested in luging but it all changed when I got the opportunity to go for a luge sports camp at the age of 15. When I gave the sport a try, I was thrilled beyond imagination by it. It was at this camp that ice skating champion Gunter Lemmerer thought that I had talent," said Shiva.
"I started to push my limits. My biggest encouragement came when I was asked to do the opening of the World Cup," he added. He was offered to represent Italy in 2002 but he opted for India as he wanted to "represent Indians and do something worthwhile for the country".
"Earlier, luge was more for fun and thrill, however, with time it became meditative," he said. As an attempt to reach out to people across the nation, Shiva and his wife, Namita Agarwal, travelled to villages and organised 'Grass Root Level Luge camp' in association with the Indian Amateur Luge Association. They trained them with the help of 'Entrepreneurs Organisation'".
Shiva says that back when he started luging, the resources might not have been there but he received help from a lot of unexpected places. Post 2008, when his world ranking improved drastically, he won silver and bronze medals at the Asian championship in the year 2009-10 and 2008-09, respectively. His personal best ranking till now has been 14th place at the Nations cup in Altenberg, January 2009.
Shiva won gold at the Asia Cup in 2011 in Nagano, Japan, represented India in winter Olympics in the years 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. He has been representing India on the international forum since 1997 in the sport.