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Alpine Skier from Kashmir qualifies for upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 to be held in Beijing

Asma Noor
Asma Noor
3 Min Read

Mohammad Arif Khan qualified and secured his position in the games during the alpine skiing event in Dubai.

Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan congratulated Arif Khan, Sports council and Youth Services Sports Department for the feat and hoped that his performance in Beijing Winter Olympics will be medal winning. He said that creation of world class sporting infrastructure with training and coaching facilities has started showing results and more and more players are getting selected for National and International sports events.

He will represent India at Beijing in the Slalom event. In 2011, he had won two gold medals – in the slalom and giant slalom Alpine Skiing- at the South Asian Winter Games, the only edition held thus far.

Skiing was always in his blood. Mohammad Arif born on 3 March 1990 is 31 years old Kashmiri skier, grew up in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, a major tourist destination known for its snowy weather. “As a children we used to play football and cricket, but there was no playground around us,” Arif told. “Skiing was only convenient sport for us.” Mohammad Arif Khan turned to competitive skiing when he was 10 years old and steadily rose up the ladder.

Arif made his international debut for India when he was 16 at a junior international ski federation (FIS) event in Yomase, Japan. He finished 23rd in the giant slalom.

In 2011, Mohammad Arif Khan won two gold medals – in the slalom and giant slalom – at the South Asian Winter Games, the only edition held thus far.

Mohammad Arif Khan’s first taste of the FIS World Ski Championships came in 2013. The Indian alpine skier finished 59th in the slalom and 91st in the giant slalom and was unable to move past the qualification stage.

Since then, Arif has taken part in three more world championships, with his best result being 45th in the giant slalom at the 2021 edition in Italy. It was the first time he qualified for the final in any world championship event.

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 is scheduled to be held from February 4 to 20.

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