India's icy indifference to winter sport frustrates trailblazer Keshavan

CNA

06-05-2025

NEW DELHI :Twenty seven years since his Winter Olympics debut with a borrowed sled in Nagano, Shiva Keshavan cannot help feeling that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
The former luger knows what it feels to be the only Indian in an Olympic Village - he was a one-man team in the first two of his six appearances at the Winter Games.
Likewise, Alpine skier Arif Mohammad Khan was the only Indian at the 2022 Beijing Games in Beijing and could be again next year in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
"Fundamentally, nothing has changed," Keshavan told Reuters from Italy, the birthplace of his mother. "Fundamentally, we are still struggling to get off the starting blocks.
"Right now, (winter sport) athletes are coming up despite the system, not because of the system."
The system is largely on paper.
India has only a handful of ski resorts, three indoor ice rinks, one certified Alpine slope, and no culture of winter sports.
"You cannot practise in a pond and hope to win an Olympic medal in swimming," Ice Hockey Association of India secretary general Harjinder Singh told Reuters.
There are also luge and ski federations but none enjoy the National Sports Federation (NSF) status that would entitle them to regular government funds because not enough states participate in their sports.
Keshavan often competed with borrowed sleds and hand-me-down jackets. He had to crowdfund some of his Olympic trips and had thousands of names of donors etched on his suit at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The cricket-mad nation has warmed up to the Summer Olympics and is even preparing a bid for the 2036 Games but winter sports continue to languish outside public consciousness.
"We are missing some very basic steps," Keshavan said.
"There's no official recognition of any single winter sport and unless that changes, nothing will change."
Despite being one of the world's most populous nations, it took India four decades to send their first athlete to the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck in 1964.
Alpine skier Jeremy Bujakowski, who was born to Polish parents in Lithuania before moving to India, failed to finish either of his events and was 53rd and 65th when he returned to the Olympics in 1968, again alone.
NO MEDAL
It was to be another two decades until India was again represented with the first woman, Shailaja Kumar, among the three alpine skiers at the 1988 Games in Calgary.
Keshavan made his debut at the 1998 Games and was part of the record contingent of four athletes that went to the 2006 Turin Games.
In all, there have been 16 Winter Olympians from India. None has won a medal.
Reuters reached out to several Indian Olympic Association officials, including president PT Usha, but none was available to comment.
"Obviously, the scope for winter sports is limited to certain areas but the population of those areas will outnumber many European nations," Keshavan, 43, said.
The buzz around India's 2036 Olympic bid makes him optimistic that the prevailing frost of apathy towards winter sports may have started thawing.
"The world knows that India is a sleeping giant in sports," he said.
"It's only now that we've really started talking in bigger terms. It's only now that we've started talking about hosting Olympics.
"People now beginning to realise it's not just about winning medals, it's about creating a healthy nation."
Ice hockey chief Singh is hoping a new sports bill, currently being prepared by the government, would tweak rules and grant the NSF status to the IHAI and other winter sport federations.