India s icy indifference to winter sport frustrates trailblazer Keshavan

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.

Theres no official recognition of any single winter