The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as XXIII Olympic Winter Games and more commonly as the PyeongChang 2018, is being hosted by South Korea this year. It is the first time that South Korea is hosting a Winter Olympics and the second time since 1988 that it is hosting an Olympics at all (Summer Olympics, 1988).

The Winter Olympics that is being held right now (9-25 February) has a total of 102 events in fifteen sports. Apart from these fifteen sports, it is also having events such as “big air” snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing. A total of 2,952 athletes would be competing from the 92 National Olympic Countries that are participating.

The Indian team comprises of two men athletes who would be competing in two different sports, one for cross-country skiing and one for luge. The cross-country skier is Jagdish Singh. This event is “Men’s 15km freestyle”. The athlete for luge is Shiva Keshavan. He has been ranked in the top 38 of the 2017-18 Luge World Cup standings. This would be his sixth and final appearance in an Olympic event as an athlete. 

Shiva Keshavan was also the one who carried the Indian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeonChang. He is also the one with the maximum number of Winter Olympic appearances from India, the second being Leander Paes if we consider the Summer Olympics as well. 

Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across the snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Jagdish Singh finished 103rd out of 119 athletes who took part in the men’s 15 km free cross-country skiing race. He crossed the finish line with a time of 43 minutes and 0.3 seconds.

A Luge is a sledge that carries one or two persons depending on whether it’s a single or a doubles event. In the Olympics, the sport involves athletes, riding the luge down an artificial track. Lugers lie face up on the sleigh and control their slide using mainly their calves to apply pressure on the runners which are the steel rods below the sleigh.

Apart from the men’s singles in which Keshavan is participating, the other sections include Women’s Singles, doubles and team relay. A total of four runs are allowed for each athlete and the first and second runs are scheduled to be held on Sunday. The first run is scheduled to start at 7:10 PM local time i.e, 3:40 PM IST.