Winter Olympics 2018 Opening Ceremony: India Luger Shiva Keshavan carries flag for India
Winter Olympics 2018 Opening Ceremony: India Luger Shiva Keshavan carries flag for India
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New Delhi [India], Feb 10: Indian luger Shiva Keshavan’s 20-year Olympic odyssey comes to an end at the Pyeongchang Games this weekend with a familiar lament about the country’s winter sports apathy. A teenage Keshavan shot down the luge track on a borrowed sled at Nagano in 1998 and at the age of 36, he will compete in his sixth consecutive Games at the Olympic Sliding Centre. None of the performers in the opening ceremony, which involves athletes from all over the world, were harmed in the incident.

The stage invasion came just after North and South Korea marched together into the stadium behind the blue-and-white unification flag in a rare show of unity after the tensions of previous months

But the welcome mat has been laid out for the North Koreans. In a gold-medal diplomatic performance, after months of silence on the issue, Pyongyang said it would be happy to send a delegation to the Games. North and South have been divided by the Cold War's last frontier since the 1950-1953 Korean war. Hostilities have never officially ceased, and occasional cross-border incidents punctuate a 70-year ceasefire.

The crowning moment of any opening ceremony: the final leg of the torch relay and the lighting of the Olympic caldron. Inbee Park, the golfer, was one of the final torchbearers. Two members of the mixed North and South Korean women’s hockey team, Chung Su-hyon of North Korea and Park Jong-ah of South Korea, carried the torch up the stairs. It is currently unclear how the unidentified Korean man was able to jump the barriers and get onto the ice chute but local police in Pyeongchang, the South Korean resort where the two week tournament is held, say they are investigating. 

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