Shiva Keshavan

Luger and Six-time Winter Olympian.

- Alshaar Khan

Challenges have defined my journey. When I couldn’t afford the equipment, I borrowed from others until I figured out how to build my own. India doesn’t have a luge track, so I found a way to train on the mountain roads. One of the biggest challenges has been that no one in India believed that a sport career is sustainable, or that I could find funding, but I believed that it was possible to make the corporate houses of India partners in this journey. Today I have a wonderful set of companies supporting me: Hero Electronix, Hero FinCorp, Mallcom India, Deloitte and Samsung, they all believe in what I am trying to achieve.

The great thing that sport teaches you is that you can compete against each other while respecting your opponents and wishing the best for them. When my sled broke in Canada, I had no way of competing, and it was an important Olympic qualifying event for the 2018 Winter Olympics. But Daria Obartov’s (a fellow luger from Croatia) race was a little after my own, and she offered to lend me hers, despite the risks, because I think all the athletes trust and help each other in times of need.