Harbin, China, January 14, 2024: At the age of 42 and with six Olympic Winter Games under his belt, the passion for ice and snow still burns brightly within Indian luge legend Shiva Keshavan.
Shiva, who made his Olympic debut as a 16-year-old daredevil at Nagano 1998 and went on to compete in five more Winter Games, has been visiting Harbin as a member of the OCA Coordination Committee for the 9th Asian Winter Games in February 2025.
During the course of the three-day visit, he has been sharing more than just his experience and knowledge of winter sports competition; it’s his love of winter sports that has been evident throughout.
When asked, for him, what is the joy of winter sports, he replies: “For me, winter sports is freedom; it is socializing; it is just this renewal of the world because everything looks new in winter.
“So, I think the appeal of winter sports - there is a lot more romance, there is a lot more adventure, which is why I think I have spent my entire life in this field.
“From the youngest kid who dreams of the snowflakes falling, making snowmen, to the most experienced athlete chasing that thrill and that adventure down the slope…it wakes up that child in you. You want to connect with people and share this experience.”
Shiva, whose last Olympics as a luge athlete was PyeongChang 2018, said he was “very grateful” to be nominated by the OCA to this AWG Coordination Committee as it would help him make the transition from athlete to administrator by keeping him involved at the highest level.
He also believes that China is perfectly positioned to become a world leader in the Olympic winter sports movement.
“It is always impressive to visit China and to discover all the progress they have made in recent years, specifically for winter sports,” added.
“With the kind of facilities they have, they can really be a leader for developing the sport in the entire region. Winter sports has traditionally been very central European focused; of course, we have the emergence of North America already for quite some time, and Russia has always been there, but the governance and the competition structure and everything has been centered in central Europe.
“From Asia’s perspective, if we have to plan and have a new development programme, new circuit, this is a place than can really take a lot of initiatives. From an organisation point of view, the efficiency of the organisation is fantastic; that’s how they have been successfully able to host multiple sports events so frequently and doing a good job with it.”
Looking ahead to the AWG Harbin 2025, Shiva thinks the athletes can expect “a fantastic level” of competition, organisation and venues.
“The facilities are really great; as for the organisation, there is nothing to say about the efficiency of how the logistics are organised here.
“I think that we can expect, from the official motto ‘simple, safe and spectacular, so no frills but it is going to be top-class so the athletes can compete at top-of-the-world level infrastructure over here.”
