A road race that started it all Kalla wins skiathlon gold, Bjoergen makes history
TOUGH PATH Luge exponent Shiva Keshavan’s journey that began at a camp in Panchkula will end after six Olympics in Pyeongchang
CHANDIGARH: Shiva Keshavan, 36, will take his last bow at PyeongChang. This Winter Olympics will end a 23-year-old sporting career that spanned a record six Games and four Asian titles.
Keshavan’s roots are in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, known for winter sports but his fascinating journey started from a place where there has never been any snow – Panchkula in Haryana.
Keshavan took his first lessons in luge on the Kalka-pinjore road in Panchkula at a weeklong scouting camp organised by the International Luge Federation (ILF).
“Before attending that camp I had no idea about luge. But being a skier and a good athlete, my school (Lawrence School Sanawar) recommended me for the luge talent hunt camp,” he said.
“At the camp there were guys from the Army, ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police), Navy and champion junior athletes from many sporting disciplines. Though the sport was new for me, being from Manali gave me an advantage. PYEONGCHANG: Shiva Keshavan was 34th after two rounds in the luge competitions. Keshavan, who is taking part in his sixth and final Winter Olympics, was 36th at the end of first run but recovered a bit in the second, where he finished 31st, to be placed 34th overall at the halfway mark. Two more runs will be held on Sunday.
“The kids in our area are familiar with wooden sledges they make themselves and play with in winter. So, it didn’t take much time to familiarise myself with luges that had roller blades.”
The Hollywood film ‘Cool Running’, based on Jamaica’s debut in the Winter Olympics through their bobsled team, motivated the International Luge Federation to scout for talent in unlikely destinations, including India.
And this brought world champion Guenther Lemmerer to the camp in Panchkula.
“First they showed us a video of luge and bobsleigh and then the movie ‘Cool Runnings’. We used sledges with roller blades after that,” recalled Keshavan.
“I still remember that a day before the race at the camp, I took the sled for a solo spin after training and went down the ‘khud’ side, experiencing the risk associated with the sport,” he added.
From the camp in Panchkula, Keshavan was chosen for a training stint in Austria and a year after making his international debut, he became the youngest ever luge-olympian, at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games. He was the only entrant from India.
“Now it is really amazing to see how far I came since the day I piloted my first sled on the KalkaPinjore road in Panchkula. I never imagined I would reach this far given all the obstacles I had to face,” he said. PYEONGCHANG: The Pyeongchang Games got off to a historic start on Saturday. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won the first gold of the games and Norwegian crosscountry skier Marit Bjoergen took silver in the women’s 15km skiathlon to become the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever.
But while the 37-year-old Bjoergen, who won three gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games and three more in Sochi, proved she’s still a dominant figure in the sport, she admitted there is a noticeable changing of guard happening in the sport. “I have been very good for many years but I’m also getting older and the younger girls are getting better,” Bjoergen said.
It was an 11th career medal for Bjoergen, breaking a three-way tie with Raisa Smetanina of Russia and Stefania Belmondo of Italy. Bjoergen thrust her arms up in the air as she crossed the finish, knowing she’d made history in what she said will be her last Olympics.
Kalla won the race by more than seven seconds after breaking away from the pack in the last 2 km to avenge her second-place finish to Bjoergen at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
She said she has plenty of respect for Bjoergen, one of her training partners. “It feels very good to be ahead of Marit,” Kalla said. “She’s a fantastic skier.”
Krista Parmakoski of Finland was third and Jessica Diggins placed fifth, missing a chance to become the first American woman to earn a medal in crosscountry skiing. Diggins was third in the World Cup standings coming into the race.
Diggins said she was so nervous before the race that she threw up. “The stress level has been pretty high,” Diggins said. “I need to work on a few things to manage stress.”
Led by Bjoergen, Norway won 11 medals overall in cross-coun- try in Sochi four years ago — including five gold — to tie the country’s record. The Norwegians have now tied Russia for the most medals all time in women’s cross-country skiing with 37.
Including men’s cross-country events, only Bjoern Daehlie of Norway has won more medals (12) than Bjoergen. She will have a chance to pass that mark in the upcoming weeks.
For Kalla it was her sixth career Olympic medal — and third gold.
WELLINGER CHAMP
The cold was biting. The wind was brutal. And for Andreas Wellinger, it added up to Olympic gold. The 22-year-old German won the men’s normal hill title despite the frigid temperatures and whipping wind at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center. He nailed a jump of 113.5 metres to secure the gold with 259.3 points.
“The wind was quite good,” Wellinger said. “Sometimes a bit different — one, two, three metres headwind — but I think all in all it was a good competition, it was really fair and if you do your best jumps you can be close to the top and especially my second jump was really, really good.”