India at 2018 Winter Olympics

**By APD Rishika Chauhan **

**NEW DELHI, Feb. 10 (APD)- **India competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea however the participation was low and the country won no medals.

The Indian team comprised of two male athletes who competed in cross-country skiing and lunge. More or less, it proved to be a spectator sport for the country’s sportspersons.

Indian athlete Shiva Keshavan

According to a report published in the Scroll, it was a “combination of climatic conditions, funding woes and lack of support or facilities for winter sports,” that resulted in low participation and dismal performance from India.

Indian athlete Jagdish Singh

The two Indian athletes who participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics were Shiva Keshavan and Jagdish Singh.

Shiv Keshavan's world ranking

From

Pyeongchang Winter Olympic 2018 official website

It was Shiva Keshavan sixth time at the Olympics. He participated in the cross-country skiing event and had previously funded his Olympic trips through crowd funding.

His rankings at the Olympics have improved over time. However he is older than the median age of the medallists. This year he announced that it would be his last year at the Olympics.

Jagdish Singh, the second Indian participant at Pyeongchang competed in the men’s 15-kilometer free cross-country skiing race.

Singh has been skiing since 2011 and has trained at India’s High-altitude Army Warfare School in Gulmarg. He qualified for the Winter Games only in December 2017.

Speaking to the media, he recounted his hardships and lack of support from India’s Winter Games Federation. He said, “We have hardly got time to train. The federation does not care about anyone. Because of that I got late coming here.”

Meanwhile, the Winter Games Federation explained its problems. An official informed that the organisation did not have sufficient funds for Singh as the Indian Olympic Association had derecognized it recently.

Previously, India has secured two medals in 2016’s Rio Olympics and six medals in the 2012 Olympics in London.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)