Abhishek Bachchan comes out to support Indian athlete at Winter Olympics

Shiva Keshavan

Luge is a Winter Olympic sport.

It is one of the fastest sliding sports in the competition where the luger, as the participant is known, steers his/her sled down the winding slopes at speeds in excess of 140 kmph on a regular basis.

Shiva Keshavan is an Indian luge athlete, and he is competing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. He is the only Indian participating at the games in Sochi. And this is not the first time either; Shiva has already represented India at four Olympics and holds a unique distinction of being the youngest ever competitor to take part in the luge event, when as a 16-year-old he competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Luge is an expensive sport with the basic sled in itself costing in the range of Rs. 3 to 5 lakh and then there is the added cost of customization which comes along as each athlete models it to suit his/her requirements.

Shiva though has now received the backing of one of his biggest admirers, Bollywood movie star Abhishek Bachchan. Bachchan junior is well known as a big sports fan and the actor is now keen on helping out Shiva, who is the fastest luger in Asia, and has won back-to-back gold medals in the 2011 and 2012 Asian Championships.

Shiva will be gunning for a medal in Sochi as well and though the sport is yet to take off in India, Abhishek is said to be garnering support for the athlete by spreading the word among his peers in the industry in an attempt to provide the best possible support for Shiva.

According to a source: “Though Abhishek loves football and basketball, he also takes keen interest in other sports and when he heard about Shiva’s plight, he immediately made inquiries about him and is now going all out to encourage everyone right from his friends to opinion makers to voice their support so that people sit up and take notice and back the sport which has been long ignored in the country.”

Abhishek has also confirmed the reports saying: “I am willing to do whatever I can to help Shiva. Every sportsperson of our country must be supported and encouraged. They hope to represent us, India, on a world stage. We must support them!”