Skier Arif Khan’s uphill battle to make the 2022 Winter Olympics

Skier Arif Khan is determined to make the most of what could be his last chance of realising his dream

The Winter Olympics in Beijing will begin on February 4, 2022. Which gives Arif Khan just 10 more months. A slalom and giant slalom skier’s prime years, he says, are between the ages of 25 and 32. He is 31. This could be his last shot at realising a longtime dream: representing India at the Winter Olympics. Arif almost made it the last time. He had to average 140 points from five slalom races for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang. He was on track after good performances in Turkey, Bulgaria, Norway, and Sweden. One more good race in Iran would have given him the ticket to the 2018 Games. Then, it was cancelled due to bad weather. However, the door was still not shut. Arif had a chance to compete in a race in Switzerland before the deadline. But, he needed ₹1.5 lakh to get there. He had exhausted the money he had borrowed from friends and family. There was neither Government backing nor private sponsorship for a hardly known sport in the country (there still isn’t). He could not go to Switzerland, and so he waited for four more years.