Himalayan luger back on track at Salt Lake

There's plenty of ice in India, and not just in the drinks. As for the jokes, luger Shiva Keshavan has heard more than his share.

Keshavan knows about ice and snow, having spent his childhood living near Chandigarh in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India.

The 20-year-old Keshavan, competing at his second Winter Olympics, is among a group of lugers competing who come from nations more synonymous with heat, beaches or jungles.

"We have snow, lots of snow, but it's not really common to ski in India because there's not many lifts or equipment," he said.

Patrick Singleton of Bermuda is competing in the Olympics for the first time, as is Renato Mizoguchi of Brazil.

Werner Hoeger, a former Venezuelan gymnastics champion, is making his Olympic debut at age 48 at these games, where he's competing against son Chris, another Olympic rookie on Venezuela's team.

"Before Nagano, the international luge federation had a promotional programme for tropical countries and tried to recruit some lugers in India," Keshavan said. "Believe it or not, there was already an Indian luge federation but it had nobody in it."

He was one of 35 people who attended a luge camp in Delhi in 1997 and recalled his first sled, a four-wheel luge that he raced down a tarmac road.

"It was an Indian road, so it wasn't smooth," he said.

"That was fast but I couldn't believe how much faster it was on the ice," Keshavan said.

He was hooked after spending a couple of weeks at a special training school in Austria under the guidance of Guenther Lemmerer, a three-time World Cup winner in doubles.

"I spent a couple of weeks in Austria and then went to see the world championships in Innsbruck," he said. "I didn't qualify for the worlds but they let me have a go as a pre-run for the women's races."

Still in high school and the only athlete on the national team, Keshavan was nervous when he carried the Indian flag into the opening ceremony in 1998 in Nagano and said he couldn't savour the moment.

Now attending university in Florence, Italy, and coming off his first full-season on the circuit, Keshavan said he enjoyed carrying the flag in the opening ceremony in Salt Lake on Friday.

After yesterday's opening two rounds, Keshavan was 30th after committing a couple of unforced errors on each of his first two runs.

Keshavan was far behind luge superstars like Italian Armin Zoeggeler, Austria's Markus Prock and Germany's Georg Hackl.

He placed 28th in Nagano and is aiming for a top 20 spot here. He's full of advice for the other rookies, who were behind him in the standings going into today's last two rounds.

"I train alongside the Italian team now and they give me a lot of help," he said. "I learned a lot just being at Nagano and I try to help some of the other guys if I can."