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[Blwe_torch]

It's the same old story for Keshavan

VIVEK MUKHERJI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI : Four years ago at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, a message was flashed on the giant video screen. It said: "A country of one billion, represented by one athlete." That athlete was luger Shiva Keshavan. Obviously, the message mocked at the state of winter sports in the country, which is naturally endowed with the largest mountain system on terra firma.

In 2006, things appear to have inched forward. For a change, this time Keshavan, who also represented Indian in Nagano Games in 1998, will have the company of Hira Lal (Giant Slalom), Neha Ahuja (Alpine downhill) and Gupta Bhadur Gurang (Nordic cross country) at the opening ceremony of the Turin Games which kick off next week.

Expecting this rag-tag outfit to pick-up medals is like chasing shadows. Shiva has already been tipped to win hearts if not medals (by the Sports Illustrated), yet he is the only one with the potential to make it to the final round of Luge competitions.

His journey to the biggest stage of ice and snow sport is a tale peppered with many an incredulous twist. For starters, the association which looks after luge in India — Indian Amateur Luge Association — exists but none of its office bearers are traceable. "I have no idea where the president of IALA, Harish Kumar is at present," says Col N Kumar, president of Winter Games Federation of India.

There's more to this sorry tale. Keshavan, country’s only winter Olympian was marked out by International Olympic Committee for its solidarity scholarship soon after the Nagano Games in 1998, which allows the athlete to train abroad.

But he has not received any money simply because neither IALA nor National Olympic Committee has bothered to follow up his case. Though Shiva hasn't got the scholarship, Neha Ahuja, who is taking part in her first Games, received the coveted grant of $1,000 per month. 

http://sport.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1405314.cms