BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: The cash-strapped Indian athletes, especially luger Shiva Keshavan , participating in the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia starting next week, have a huge bunch of well-wishers to thank for: Abhishek Bachchan, Freida Pinto, Neha Dhupia, Prakash Padukone, Geet Sethi, Leander Paes and Harsha Bhogle to name a few.

But perhaps the unlikeliest of Good Samaritans was a group using the seven-week old digital currency Dogecoin. The donors got together on the social news and entertainment website Reddit where they wired Dogecoins to a communal wallet, raising an amount worth 7,000 dollars. A Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency or digital currency like Bitcoin and Litecoin, introduced on December 8th, 2013. It was started in the USA and Australia and 1 Doge currently equals US$0.0015. The amount for the Indian trio -- alpine skier Himanshu Thakur and cross-country skier Nadeem Iqbal , being the other two -- was raised in under three hours.

Similarly, Bollywood stars and sporting legends pooled in Rs 10 lakh to fund Keshavan’s training. The campaign, launched by Ketto, a portal that helps NGOs to raise funds, and initiated by Olympic Gold Quest, became an instant hit online and raised the targeted amount in less than two months.

According to Varun Sheth , who co-headed the initiative, a total of 138 persons, mostly Indians, pooled in Rs 5 lakh while another individual matched it with a donation of Rs 5 lakh.

Keshavan recalled the contributions of his well-wishers with gratitude. “Many people contributed. The campaign was also promoted on social media by sports legends like Paes and a number Bollywood actors. One company pooled in half the amount,” Keshavan told TOI from his training base in the French Alps.

The Dogecoin story began when a Washington Post article about the athletes having trouble raising funds caught the attention of those on Reddit. What the donors found particularly heartrending was Keshavan’s quote in the story that read, “Maybe I have to borrow from friends…Some miracle will happen, no?” While it was Keshavan’s quote that found most resonance, donors were trying to get in touch with alpine skier Thakur and cross-country skier Iqbal as well. The three athletes will be contesting independently as India is under suspension from the International Olympics Committee.

The sports ministry has also sanctioned over Rs 10 lakh a few days back. Keshavan could not be contacted.

Ben Doernberg of the Dogecoin Foundation, which looks after the charity efforts of the Dogecoin community, said that the fundraising effort began 10 days ago when they received requests for the cause. “There were tons of people asking the Foundation to help, so we did!” Doernberg told TOI over email.

This isn’t the first time the Dogecoin community has volunteered to fund a sports team. On January 19, they raised over 30,000 dollars for the Jamaican bobsled team that was short on funds.

Doernberg says he has been in touch with Keshavan’s wife and the secretary general of the Winter Games Federation of India (WGFI) Roshan Lal Thakur. “We are still working out the logistics of how to make sure the money goes to getting all three members of the Indian delegation to the Olympics! Shiva and his wife are currently training for the Olympics in the French Alps and don't have constant access to the internet, so it's taking a little while, but we're very confident we'll get it to the right place,” says Doernberg.

Roshan Lal Thakur confirmed having been contacted by the Dogecoin Foundation. “We have only been told that they have raised money. We have told them they can contact the athletes directly. We haven’t had further communication since,” he said.

TOI contacted some of the donors on Reddit, who preferred to not reveal their real identities. A Redditor by the name of MysticFear from California said that Shiva’s training video on YouTube sealed the deal. “He has a goal and just needed some help. I wanted to help,”says MysticFear, who donated 1,00,000 Dogecoins. Another user, greyman, who gave away 10,000 Dogecoins, said, “I read about Shiva Keshavan in the Washington Post article, and it struck me as a great injustice that this guy is training so hard…and then he would be left out due to the issues with the Indian Olympic Association,” s/he said. “Everyone has dreams, and those that have put a lot of work into achieving those dreams should not ever be held back by a silly small amount of money,” said Sporklin, who claims to have donated “enough to make a little impact”.

Buoyed by the success of the Olympic Gold Quest campaign, Sheth said they are now keen to take up the cases of needy sportspersons. “We have so far raised more than Rs 50 lakh in 22 campaigns and this was the first to help a sports star and it turned out to be the biggest,” he said.

Tug of War and Atya Patya are among the sports recognized by the Union Sports Ministry but the National Luge Federation is still waiting for government recognition. “There have been a number of talented young athletes that have taken part in national talent scout camps and even travelled abroad for training and competition. However, due to lack of funds they have not been given the chance,” Keshavan said.

“The National Sports federation for Luge is not recognised by the Sports ministry and due to this we cannot have access to funding. I have personally trained a number of athletes but without backing from our sports administration how can young athletes progress? Even a seasoned sportsman like myself has no means of livelihood through sport,” he added.