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Arif Khan will represent India at the 2022 Winter Olympics as the country's sole representative. Due to a lack of funding, Arif Khan was unable to qualify for the Winter Games in 2018, but he worked tirelessly to gain a seat in Beijing.

During the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Games, Arif Khan went through the planned route of the Beijing National Stadium – the Bird’s Nest – clutching the Indian flag in his gloved hands. Despite being the only Indian – sportsperson or political – in the Winter Olympics, his march was measured and sure-footed, and he betrayed no signs of anxiety.

Khan, on the other hand, has long been accustomed to making his own way in his skiing career. In India, being a winter sports athlete is a lonely battle because the Indian government has yet to reintroduce winter sports as a priority since it was removed from the list in 1998. As a result, Khan’s life was meant to be a struggle.

In December, he told the BBC, “I never believed it would be difficult to gain the support I needed to continue as a professional player for the country.”

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Khan would have to do something remarkable to earn a place at the peak of winter sports. He discovered the opening in the artificial hills of Dubai, which is famed for its shopping and severe desert weather. He finished ninth, eleventh, and tenth in the four events at the FIS Entry League competition in November, earning a spot in the Slalom event at Beijing 2022. A month later, he earned a quota in the Giant Slalom event in Montenegro, making him the first Indian to qualify for two distinct Winter Games events in the same edition.

It was only recently that he received the TOPS program’s blessings. “My family never stepped back in terms of providing me financial help before that,” he said.

Rapid ascension-

Khan was born in Gulmarg, Kashmir, where pristine snow-capped peaks welcomed anyone interested in skiing. His father, Yaseen, introduced him to the sport when he was four years old. Khan, who is elder, is a lifelong skier who has worked as a ski guide since 1980. He also owns a ski business, from which he invests the proceeds on his son’s career.

“It was in 1994,” Khan, 31, told when asked when he first became interested in the sport.

“To get to the ski shop, we had to walk around 500 metres.” There was also a lot of snow. Just outside the business, my father had groomed a tiny ski slope. We began (skiing) around 9:30 a.m. and continued for several hours.

He wanted to go pro at the age of ten, and in his first appearance at a junior national championship, he won gold. He began competing in international events at the age of 16, beginning with a 23rd-place performance in a tournament in Japan.

“By 2008, I was skiing faster than other Indian sportsmen, and that’s when I decided to pursue an Olympic bid,” he told the BBC.

Since then, he’s been a regular in the World Championships, with his best finish of 45th coming last year in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The Winter Olympics, on the other hand, were always out of reach.

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Heartbreak in PyeongChang 2018-

He initiated a crowd-funding campaign ahead of the PyeongChang Games in 2018 to attempt and raise enough money to get him to the essential qualification tournaments. He made it to four, but ran out of money to compete in the fifth tournament, when he might have made the cut.

With his heart broken, he focused all of his efforts on Beijing.

His commitment was so intense that he even postponed his wedding, which was supposed to take place in September 2021, in order to travel and compete – all in the hopes of gaining that elusive Olympic quota.

Corporates interested in investing in his career provided him with some assistance.

JSW sponsored Khan for half of his expenditures, and Khan would gladly accept any help he could get. In March of last year, he was able to relocate his training base to an international institution in Austria. He eventually earned the quota by sliding down the artificial slopes of a Dubai shopping centre while people watched from the mall windows.

Last Friday, only social media posts captured him walking past the Bird’s Nest Stadium. When he takes to the slopes in Beijing, he’ll be seen by a lot more people, first with the Giant Slalom on February 13 and then the Slalom on February 16. He’ll be living his Olympic dream at that time, attempting to make the most of the solitary battle.

Also Read:

http://arthparkash.com/english/indian-officials-to-not-participate-in-beijing-winter-olympics