Arif Khan becomes first Indian to qualify for two events in Winter Olympics

Jammu and Kashmir-based alpine skier Arif Mohammed Khan has qualified for his second event at the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing.

Arif Khan had last month booked his Winter Games ticket in an Olympic qualifier alpine skiing slalom event in Dubai. He has recently managed to qualify for his second event that is the giant slalom in the alpine skiing event.

By doing this, he becomes the first Indian to qualify for two events at the Winter Olympics. There are three Indians who have previously competed at the Winter Olympics in 2 events.

Chuni Lal and Nanak Chand took part in two events in 1992 while Neha Ahuja did the same feat in 2006 in the slalom and giant slalom events. However, the difference here is that all these athletes were invited or given a quota to take place in this event as opposed to directly qualifying for it by virtue of securing qualification.

Arif Khan has represented India at the World Championships earlier as well.

He hails from North Kashmir and made his international debut for India at the age of 16 in Japan. He has also won two gold medals at the South Asian Winter Games in 2011.

While India had been represented by two athletes - Jagdish Singh (cross country skiing) and Shiva Keshavan (luge) - in the 2018 Winter Games, Arif Khan is the only person to have qualified for the 2022 Winter Games so far.