| Noc: | IND |
| Nocname: | Indian Olympic Association |
| Games: | Winter Olympics |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Location: | Nagano |
| Competitors: | 1 |
| Competitors Men: | 1 |
| Sports: | 1 |
| Flagbearer: | Shiva Keshavan |
| Gold: | 0 |
| Silver: | 0 |
| Bronze: | 0 |
| Appearances: | auto |
| App Begin Year: | 1964 |
India competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, from 7 to 22 February 1998. This was the nation's fifth appearance at the Winter Olympics since its debut in 1964 and marked its return to the Games after missing the previous Olympics in 1994.
The India team consisted of one male luger, Shiva Keshavan, who was the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. He did not win a medal, and as of these Games, India had not earned a Winter Olympic medal.
The Indian Olympic Association was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1927.[1] However, by this time, they had already competed in three Summer Olympic Games, in 1900, 1920, and 1924. The nation made its first Winter Olympics appearance at the 1964 Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck, Austria.[2] This edition of the Games marked the nation's fifth appearance at the Winter Olympics.[3] [4]
The Indian delegation consisted of a lone athlete, Shiva Keshavan.[3] [5] Keshavan was the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.[6] [7]
| width=120 | Sport | width=50 | Men | width=50 | Women | width=50 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luge | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 1 | 0 | 1 |
See main article: Luge at the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Shiva Keshavan was the only Indian to qualify for the event. He had represented India since 1997 and was the youngest ever men's luge competitor at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.[8] [9] [10] This was his second consecutive appearance at the Winter Olympic Games since he made his debut at the previous Olympics.[11] He competed with a rented sled and money raised on his own as the Indian Olympic Association did not sponsor his participation.[12]
The event was held from 8 to 9 February 1998 at the Spiral.[13] [14] In his first run, Keshavan clocked a time of 52.315, finishing 2.596 behind the leader Georg Hackl. In the second run, he clocked 52.127 to be ranked 29th amongst the 33 participants. In the third run, he completed the circuit with the time of 52.043 to be ranked 28th. He recorded his best time of 51.900 in the final run. Keshavan finished more than nine seconds behind the gold medalist Hackl and was classified in the 28th position with a total time of 3:28.385.[15]