What's Luge? An Indian Olympic Hero answers

What is Luge?

Luge is a winter sport featured at the Winter Olympic Games where a competitor or two-person team rides a flat sled while lying face up and feet first. The sport is usually contested on a specially designed ice track that allows gravity to increase the sled’s speed. The winner normally completes the route with the fastest overall time. It was first contested at the 1964 Winter Olympics, with both men’s and women’s events and a doubles event. From 1964 to 2010, doubles was technically considered a mixed event, but it was almost always competed by a team of two men. Starting in 2014, the doubles event will become a men’s only event due to the introduction of the team relay. German lugers,have dominated the competition, winning 75 medals in 43 events.

How luge works?

India in Olympian Luge

Shiva Keshavan (born August 25, 1981) is a five time Olympian and the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. He set a new Asian speed record at 134.3 km/h (83.5 mph) after beating the previous record of 131.9 km/h (82.0 mph) and won gold medal in Asia Cup 2011 at Nagano in Japan. In 2012, he set a new Asian track record at 49.590 seconds.

Career

Keshavan picked up luge when he was selected at a training camp in Himachal at the age of 15.^[1] Keshavan won the Junior National Ski Championship in 1995 at the age of 14. He attended a luge camp conducted by world champion G?nther Lemmerer. Keshavan was selected as a promising young athlete and went on to become the youngest person to ever officially qualify for the Olympic Games in luge. He was offered to represent Italy in 2002, but refused. In 2014, Keshavan walked as an Independent Olympic Participant at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi due to the suspension of the Indian Olympic Association. However, later on during the Sochi Winter Olympics, Indian Olympic Association made a comeback as a recognized country by the International Olympic Committee resulting in Keshavan competing under the Indian flag.
In November 2014, Keshavan collaborated with Duncan Kennedy to train for 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Duncan will act as Keshavan?s personal coach while leveraging his technical expertise to improve Keshavan?s sled.