Beijing Winter Olympics character | look at the Indian, he is lonely and happy

Live Bar February 19, these days at the National Alpine Ski Center, all the reporters are waiting for an Indian - Mohammed Arif Khan, the standard-bearer of the Indian delegation, India's only athlete at the Winter Olympics, the man who postponed the marriage for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the man who is known as "one person represents nearly 1.4 billion compatriots".

But our eyes are always drawn to another Indian, because he is so happy. No matter which runner crossed the finish line, he would jump and cheer, throwing the Indian flag up, as if all the athletes were his own family, confusing the media peers on the scene: "Who is that Indian?" ”

We "caught" this Indian running all over the place in the stands. When I talked about it, I found that he had also represented more than a billion compatriots.

An imperfect life

"I've been to six Winter Olympics." As soon as he spoke, the Indian, named Shawar Keshavan, calmed the reporter down. "I used to be a bobsledder, Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake City in 2002, and I was the standard-bearer of the Indian delegation and the only athlete."

Keshavan is now 40 years old and only 16 years old when he first participated in the Winter Olympics. Talking about him and Arif, he said that they were very similar - both "single seedling" players, both born in the mountains. However, Arif could still skate wild snow on the slopes when he was a child, but when Keshavan was a child, there was no toboggan track in India.

So, his first "sleigh" was a plank with wheels on the back. Even before retiring, he trained on the road on days when he didn't have access to the track.

We watched those training videos with curiosity and were horrified. Between the clouds and dense woods in the mountains, this somewhat crazy athlete removes the blade under the sleigh, replaces it with a wheel, and then picks the apex of a winding road to start a thrilling mountain descent. Lying on the "road sleigh", he slid through the flock, the village, dodged the motorcycle on the opposite side, the children crossing the road; when he saw a row of conical isolation piers on the road, he would slide out of the precise S-shaped route around the pier and practice direction control; when crossing the 180-degree "hairpin bend", because the road surface did not have the inclination of the bobsleigh track, he could only stretch out his hands and feet on one side, forcibly control speed and change direction.

He even slid under the cart and saw us exclaim. He laughed and said, "It's not dangerous that way," and I couldn't believe it.

"It's not an imperfect life, but it's something I love." "And when I've been to many Winter Olympics, I've also found that there are some things that are bigger than my own personal pursuits," he said. ”

Imperfect game

During his career, Keshavan won two golds, one silver and two bronze medals in the Asian Cup, making him the only winter event player in India to have won a medal in an international competition. The Italian team even promised him free use of all training equipment and coaching staff, as long as he represented Italy.

He refused, but has not been able to move further in world-class competitions. Until he retired, the expensive bobsleigh track had not been built in India. In more than twenty years, the number of athletes in the Indian Winter Olympic team has increased from one person in his time to a maximum of four people in the later period...

Now I'm back to being a person.

"Snow sports in India are developing slowly because most sports bodies are based in New Delhi. It's a hot plain, and many people don't think snow sports are useful. But we who were born in the mountains don't think so. Keshavan said.

That's why he's a nine-year-old skier, Arif.

"We met when he was a kid." Mr. Keshavan said Arif had been skiing in the mountains near his hometown since childhood, and had made his mark in the national junior competitions at the age of 12 and had no rivals in the country since 2008.

It was also then that Arif had dreams about the Winter Olympics.

"But there are no tracks in India that meet international standards and most of the places are wild snow. After one stroke, our athletes often have to carry snowboards up the mountain to skate a second time, and they can't practice many times a day. Keshavan said.

Over the years, Arif's father used the income from the ski shop to support the training of his children. But before 2018, Arif was still unable to play the points game in Europe because of lack of money. He started crowdfunding online, but eventually missed Pyeongchang.

"I've raised money like that before." "Later, I put the names of the people who helped me on the uniforms, just like they played with me," Keshavan said. ”

Lonely and perfect joy

Walking on their respective ice and snow roads, the two Indians have always been very lonely - both chose a project that is not easy to develop, and both persevered from teenagers to prime or middle age, and both stood on the Olympic stage.

But there is no way to take another step forward. They may all know that the highest honor that an athlete can get in his life is no longer possible for him to pursue.

In the men's slalom match on the 16th, Arif skated aggressively. The flag gate setting and snow conditions were beyond his reach, but he never controlled his speed until he slid off the track.

"Shawar (Keshavan) has always told me to be steady, at least to have a score, and to attract more people when I return home." Arif said after the game, "But this is my last game and I want to prove that I am more than that, I can skate faster." ”

In the stands, Keshavan saw Arif's adventure. He was a little sorry, but also smiled and said: "This is his sportsman spirit." ”

In Beijing, Keshavan has always been very happy, and the venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics have excited him, saying that he wants to bring Indian children to training in the future. In the face of Chinese reporters, he and Arif have mentioned more than once: "We are neighbors, we should cooperate more, and we want to inspire more Asian children to go to the (skiing) field." ”

On the 13th, there was heavy snow in Yanqing, and nearly half of the alpine skiers in the men's big slalom failed to finish the race, and Arif ranked second from the bottom among the finishers. He said bluntly after the game that the game was difficult, but he always stressed: "I skated very conservatively, because today the weather is not good, the biggest task is to finish, I have to use this result to show India and inspire Indians." ”

On the other side, Keshavan in the stands has long been playing as a child - dancing to live music, cheering all the athletes, taking pictures of the "ice pier" in the snow: "This is winter, it is the Olympic festival!" ”

(Xinhua News Agency)