With Winter Olympics XXI kicking off, I’m wondering if there will be a Hindu connection to speak of. Lets face it — India, the seat of Hindu culture, is not exactly renowned for its excellence in sports that involve snow and ice.

Still, stranger things have happened. Case in point: in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Armenian figure skaters Anastasia Grebenkina & Vazgen Azroyan chose a traditional Hindu chant, called Brahma-samhita, to free dance to. The song glorifies Lord Krishna, also known as Govinda.

This particular recording was produced by the late George Harrison (who also played bass guitar on the track) and features devotees of London’s Radha-Krishna Temple singing.

How the Armenian skaters were inspired to base their dance on a Hindu chant is a bit of a mystery that I have not been able to solve.  But it does make for an indescribable experience watching it. Here it is: