In the words of Brooke Shields, “Someone said adversity builds character, but

someone else said adversity reveals character.” One cannot simply make a
beeline for success. The journey to the zenith is full of sharp turns and near
misses but the one who manages to survive them emerges a victor. Shiva
Keshavan is one of those people who went through the vicissitudes of life as a
sportsperson and emerged to become India’s only Winter Olympic champion.
He is a six time Olympian, four times Asian games champion and the first luge
pilot of India. Owing to his numerous world records, Keshavan is also known as
‘The fastest Asian on Ice’.
In his childhood days, he was an avid skier. Little did he know what the future
had in store for him. This avocation of his won him the title of National Ski
Champion in 1995 at the tender age of 14. One fine day, he decided to attend a
luge camp that was being organised in his school by world champion Gunther
Lemmerer, that changed his life. In an interview with ESPN he said “The sport
managed to amaze me. It had speed, thrill, adventure, technical ability and
apparently I had a talent for it too!”. The spark ignited by Gunther turned into
wildfire. Such was his devotion, not only did he learn Luge from scratch in just
a year, but also became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Olympic
Games in Luge at mere sixteen years of age.
During the early 2000s, when the craze for cricket in India was soaring high and
the sports authorities left no stone unturned in order to promote anything and
everything related to cricket, the plight of other sports like badminton, hockey
let alone luge was miserable to say the least. Keshavan’s condition was no
different. More often than not he had to put in his own money or seek crowd-
funding on the Internet. The fact that luge is an expensive sport made his
predicament all-the-more vexing. He has borrowed sledges, petitioned for
money, improvised his own equipment to keep afloat his dream of bringing
Olympics to this part of the world. In the 2014 Sochi games, due to the
dissolution of the Indian Olympic Committee, he had to register himself as an
Independent candidate and on his uniform were printed the names of more
than 50,000 donors. However, in the later stages, the committee was re-
established and he was given permission to perform under the Indian Flag. In
fact, impressed by his abilities, the Italian team approached him to join their
team. However, he politely rejected their offer even when they promised him
world class facilities and free training simply because he desired to only
represent his motherland.
He qualified for his sixth Olympics in the year 2018 but could only finish 34th
out of 40 contenders as he was coming back from a major injury. The 2018
PyeongChang Winter Olympics marked the end of his glorious career.
Quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The purpose of life is not to be successful. It is
to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some
difference that you have lived and lived well.” Keshavan’s life moto cannot be
summed up in better words. After retirement he is determined to promote
luge, its basics at first and its nuances later. In order to achieve this dream of
his, he organises luge camps which can be credited for the training of more
than 200 children till date. Apart from excelling in sports, he has studied
Humanities and Political Science and received Masters in International
relations from the University of Florence as well.
Keshavan’s story is one of perseverance and determination to battle all odds to
fulfil his goals. He is responsible for promoting lesser known sports and
encouraging young children to take part in them and honing many of them so
that they can represent India on an international stage one day. His
contribution to the world of sports and to the world of these young
sportspeople is undeniable and indelible. But the most important thing one
can imbibe from his life is to be humble, patient and down-to-earth because
the trees closest to ground can last any storm.