Arif Mohammed Khan Becomes The First Indian To Qualify Winter Olympics

The 31-year old secured an Olympic quota spot in the men’s giant slalom event

Jammu Kashmir based alpine skier Arif Mohammed Khan has become the first athlete from the country to qualify for two different events of the Winter Olympics, set to be held in Beijing from February 4-20, next year.

The 31-year-old Khan on Wednesday secured a 2022 Winter Olympics quota spot in the men's giant slalom event. Last month, he earned a quota in the slalom event at a meet in Dubai.

Khan achieved this rare feat by qualifying for his second event (giant slalom) a month after booking his first Winter Olympics ticket in the alpine skiing slalom category in an Olympic qualifier in Dubai.

Khan is a professional alpine skier and has represented India in more than 100 ski events held across the world and has been undergoing training in Europe for most of this year.The news was confirmed by his promoter JSW Sports.

“JSW supported alpine skier Arif, who had earlier earned a provisional quota for the slalom event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, has now qualified for the giant slalom event as well,” JSW wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

 “For the first time in history, an Indian will be competing in two different events at the Winter Olympics,” JSW sports further added.

India had two representatives at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as Jagdish Singh competed in the 15km freestyle event of cross-country skiing while Shiva Keshavan took part in luge.

The men's giant slalom event will be held on February 13 while slalom will be held on February 16.