Who is Arif Khan, India’s only athlete at Beijing Winter Olympics?

File image of Arif Khan. Image Courtesy: @jswsports

Skiing runs in the blood of the only Indian athlete who made the cut for the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 to be held from 4 February. The bond between Arif Khan (31) and skiing runs deep in connection to his father and the snow-capped slopes of Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir.

Born in Kashmir’s Baramulla district, Khan took up skiing quite early in life, moving on to win his first national slalom championship at the age of just 12. His inspiration? His father Yasin Khan.

Yasin Khan used to ski on the slopes of Apharwat and a young Arif was hooked. Arif started skiing in 1994 when he was barely 3-4 years old and was thoroughly encouraged by his father who owns a ski equipment shop in Kashmir.

Arif has, in a first for any Indian athlete, secured spots in two different events of the Winter Olympics – slalom and giant slalom. He has participated in 127 international events so far.

Sponsorship has been an uphill task for Arif till last year when he was added to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) core group till the conclusion of the Winter Olympics 2022.  An amount of Rs 17.46 lakh was approved for his training in Europe and equipment procurement.

“Last one year, my training has been taken care of well. I have been performing much better than I used to before,” Khan said.

Arif wanted to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang but fell short of the desired amount of Rs 1.5 lakh for training and equipment expenses even after crowdfunding.

Currently, sports management agency JSW Sports provides him with 40 percent financial assistance with the Jammu and Kashmir government also backing him, as per an ESPN report. He, with the help of his family, reportedly covers 50 percent of the expenses. In the past, he worked as a skiing instructor to meet his expenses. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha earlier sanctioned Rs 10 lakh to help Arif undergo advanced training.

Arif has won two gold medals, in the Slalom and Giant Slalom events, at South Asian Winter Games (held in Uttarakhand in 2011). He has also participated in both the editions of Khelo India Winter Games held in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides these hurdles, he postponed his wedding to concentrate on the preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Arif is aiming for a modest top-30 finish in the showpiece event which begins on Friday.

“To be honest, if you want to be a medal contender, you require at least 10 years of training and preparation, (need) to have (decent) budget and funding, only then it’s possible to be in medal contention,” Arif said at a virtual interaction, organised by the Sports Authority of India, on 30 January.

“I have been training over a couple of years seriously and my expectation is to be make in world’s top 30. To be in top 30 is like medal winners in the world,” he added.

Khan stressed on the importance of mental preparation ahead of the quadrennial event, attributing 70 percent mental preparation to performing well in his field.

“We always have trainers for mental preparation and balance. If one is physically strong and able to go down the hill super-fast, but if the same person is disturbed mentally and is not focused at the same time, it can lead to many mistakes causing one to lose the race. To be mentally stable, we always train with our feelings (sic),” he elaborated.

His events are slated for 13 and 16 February and Arif is stoked about representing a nation of 1.4 billion people.

“It feels so great, I am going to represent 1.4 billion people, it is an achievement like being an athlete as well as being a citizen of India, it is super exciting. My dream has been to inspire people, especially back in Jammu and Kashmir. I always wanted to be someone that can really draw a line for the generation to follow and I see myself doing something closer,” he said.

With PTI inputs

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