Luge in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Reviewed profileAchievements, tournaments, coaches and FAQs on this page are compiled by hand from federation, government and press reporting, drawing on Wikipedia — Shiva Keshavan, Sledding in India, Grokipedia — Shiva Keshavan, FIL (fil-luge.org) — 'Shiva Keshavan: India's luge pioneer with an iron will', Duncan Kennedy coaching partnership, Olympics.com — Keshavan profiles, winter sports development interviews, Beijing 2022 decision, Outlook India — Luge Federation of India appointment, Hindustan Times (via PressReader) — Panchkula camp origin story, PyeongChang retirement, 2016 Asian title, Quartz India — 'The resilient luge champion representing India at the Winter Olympics', YourStory — Journey of Shiva Keshavan. These are not cited to individual documents: we hold no per-claim source for them, so treat dates, counts and career records here as a summary rather than a reference. Sections we hold nothing for are left empty. Sport pages last reviewed as a set: September 2026.

Overview

Origin: 19th century Switzerland
Category: Winter
Olympic discipline: Yes
Paralympic discipline: No
Central pathway: Olympic (TOPS eligible)
Athlete profiles on SportSupport: 1

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body: Luge Federation of India
Ministry recognition: Not currently verified
International federation: Not currently verified
Khelo India inclusion: Not currently verified
TOPS eligibility: In scope — TOPS covers Olympic medal prospects
Olympic status: On the Olympic programme
Paralympic status: Not a Paralympic discipline

Luge is listed on SportSupport in the winter category. Its recorded origin is 19th century Switzerland. It is on the Olympic programme. We list Luge Federation of India as the Indian governing/organising body for the sport.

Luge is on the pathway that runs through India's national sports federations to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), with selection running through Luge Federation of India against its published benchmarks. Being on this pathway is not itself a statement that the discipline is currently in TOPS — TOPS covers a Core Group and a Development Group chosen by the Mission Olympic Cell.

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for luge athletes in India.

Khelo India Talent Identification & Development (KITID)
Monthly stipend (₹10,000 for selected Khelo India athletes), boarding, coaching and kit at accredited centres for talent identified through the Khelo India selection process (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports). Applies only to disciplines on the official Khelo India Games list, and only to athletes it selects.
Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)
Central government scheme covering training, foreign exposure, equipment and an out-of-pocket allowance (up to ₹50,000/month) for athletes inducted by the Mission Olympic Cell. TOPS covers a Core Group and a Development Group of disciplines rather than every Olympic sport, and induction is decided athlete by athlete; we hold no current list confirming whether luge is among the covered disciplines.
National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports fund used to sponsor elite athletes' training, foreign coaches and equipment. Allocations are made case by case; we hold no record of NSDF support specific to luge.
Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons
Lifetime monthly pension (₹20,000 for Olympic/World/Asian/CWG medallists; scaled by tier) for retired internationals who meet the scheme's medal criteria — Government of India.

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Indian Players

1 profiles

Shiva KeshavanHimachal Pradesh
Shiva Keshavan (born 25 August 1981) is an Indian luger. A six-time Olympian, he is the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. 0 mph) and won a gold medal in the 2011 Asian Luge Cup at Nagano in Japan.

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Rules

Luge is raced feet-first and face-up on a refrigerated ice track, the slider lying supine on a small sled with no brakes and steering done by flexing the sled's runners with the calves and shoulders while shifting bodyweight. Runs are timed to a thousandth of a second from a standing start where the athlete paddles off with spiked gloves; singles competitions are decided over two or four runs, doubles over two. Sled and runner temperatures are regulated to stop competitors warming runners for speed, and equipment weight is capped relative to athlete weight. It differs from skeleton (head-first, prone) and bobsleigh (enclosed sled, crewed), which in India are governed by a separate association, and unlike skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, curling and biathlon it needs a purpose-built banked ice track — infrastructure India does not have.

Authoritative rulebook: Luge Federation of India. Age-group and school-level variations are published by SGFI and the state associations each season.

Positions

Typical roles across winter sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced luge squad list.

Alpine / cross-country / snowboard
Timed and judged snow disciplines under FIS rules.
Skating & ice hockey
Speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey under ISU / IIHF.
Sliding sports
Bobsleigh, luge and skeleton contested on ice tracks.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in luge at a federation-recognised event.

Racing sled with steel runners, steering bridges and a fibreglass or composite pod
Aerodynamic race suit, luge bootees that hold the feet pointed, and spiked gloves for the start
Helmet with a full visor or chin-guard face shield
Refrigerated banked ice track with a start ramp and outrun — India has none, so training happens abroad
Roller-blade-fitted training sleds for dryland talent camps

Governing/organising body

Body listed on SportSupport

Luge Federation of India

Luge Federation of India is the body we list as the Indian governing/organising body for Luge, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement of current recognition — recognition is granted year by year.

Origin: 19th century Switzerland
Olympic: Yes
Paralympic: No
Category: Winter

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Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in luge.

Luge Federation of India
India's governing body for the sport, affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL). Bobsleigh and skeleton are administered separately by the Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association of India. India has no luge track, so there is no domestic competition circuit — the federation's work is talent identification, camps and international placement rather than running a national championship.
The Panchkula talent camp
Indian luge effectively began with a week-long FIL scouting camp on the Kalka-Pinjore road at Panchkula in Haryana — a place with no snow — where participants rode sleds fitted with roller blades. The FIL had been prompted to scout unlikely countries by the Hollywood film 'Cool Runnings', about Jamaica's Olympic bobsled team, and sent Austrian world champion Günther Lemmerer to run the camp. Attendees included personnel from the Army, ITBP and Navy alongside junior athletes from other sports.
Development work
Shiva Keshavan was appointed chief coach and High-Performance Director by the Luge Federation of India in August 2020, tasked with talent scouting, infrastructure planning and writing four, eight and twelve-year development roadmaps. He has run grassroots luge camps since 2009 and has been in discussions with the FIL over designs and technical support for building India's first luge track, with Manali a likely base.

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in luge.

Winter Olympics
Keshavan competed at six consecutive Winter Olympics from Nagano 1998 to PyeongChang 2018 — a record for an Indian luger, and more Games than any Indian athlete except Leander Paes. He qualified for Nagano at 16, becoming the youngest person ever to officially qualify for the Olympics in luge. In 1998 and 2002 he was India's sole representative at the Games. He carried India's flag at four Winter Olympics, and at Sochi 2014 marched as an Independent Olympic Participant during the opening ceremony because the Indian Olympic Association was suspended, later competing under the Indian flag once it was reinstated mid-Games. His best Olympic finish was 25th, though sources differ on whether that came at Salt Lake City 2002 or Turin 2006. He finished 34th of 40 in his final Games at PyeongChang.
Asian Luge Championships and Cup
Keshavan is a four-time Asian champion, winning gold in 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017, with further Asian Cup medals across 2005, 2008 and 2009 — earning him the nickname 'Fastest Asian on Ice'. He set the Asian speed record at 134.3 km/h. At the 2016 championship in Nagano he won gold in 1:39.962 at a top speed of 130.4 km/h days after crashing, damaging a tendon in his left foot and breaking his sled.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for luge. The national championship under Luge Federation of India remains the top domestic competition.

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International Players

Globally recognised luge athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for luge maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in luge — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

Keshavan's career is the clearest illustration of what pursuing a winter sport in India costs: for years he borrowed or rented sleds for both racing and training, trained without any coach, and saved money by asking for lifts between venues rather than paying for cars and flights
He did not have a personal coach until 2014, sixteen years after his Olympic debut, when American Duncan Kennedy — the first US luger to win a World Cup — began working with him and applied his technical expertise to improving Keshavan's sled
In 2002 the Italian luge team offered him full use of their coaches and training facilities if he would compete under the Italian flag. He declined, choosing to keep representing India
He became the first winter sport athlete to receive the Arjuna Award, in 2020, and founded the Olympians Association of India in 2014
He has argued the underlying opportunity is large — over 3,000km of Himalayan mountain chain with some 50 million people living in it — and frames winter sports as a development lever for livelihoods, tourism and infrastructure in those regions rather than only as competition
He has since moved further into administration, taking a role with the International Ski Mountaineering Federation and chairing Snow and Skiing India, and skipped Beijing 2022 to concentrate on building India's development pipeline instead of competing
For an aspiring Indian luger today the pathway runs through Luge Federation of India camps and overseas training, since the country still has no track — the same constraint Keshavan spent his whole career working around

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Related academies

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No luge academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

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FAQs

Common questions about luge in India.

Who governs Luge in India?▾

We list Luge Federation of India as the Indian governing/organising body for Luge, and state associations affiliated to it run age-group and state-level competition. We hold no current-year Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition record for it, so this is not a statement that it is currently a recognised national sports federation — recognition is granted year by year.

Is Luge an Olympic sport?▾

Yes, Luge is on the Olympic programme. Athletes selected by Luge Federation of India against its published criteria can be considered for TOPS funding.

How do I start playing Luge in India?▾

The usual routes are a school team under the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), a college team under the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), or a private academy affiliated to your state association under Luge Federation of India. Age-group state championships follow from there.

What government schemes support Luge athletes?▾

TOPS supports a Core Group and a Development Group of disciplines selected by the Mission Olympic Cell, rather than every Olympic sport. We hold no current list confirming whether Luge is among them, so we make no TOPS claim for it. State governments give cash awards to medallists at events they notify. Luge does not appear on the official Khelo India Games discipline list, so we make no Khelo India claim for it.

Luge in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Luge in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.