Beijing: Arif Khan finished 45th of 89 competitors in the giant slalom event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Indian skier, according to the ESPN, finished with a time of 2 minutes, 47.24 seconds, 37.89 seconds behind gold-medallist Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. Arif was 53rd in the standings after his first run of 1 minute, 22.35 seconds earlier in the day, and set the 44th best time (1 minute, 24.89 seconds) of the 46 competitors who finished the course in Run 2.
Arif braved the tough conditions of Ice River course, as visibility was greatly affected amidst heavy snowfall. 43 athletes were unable to finish as the 49 gate course with an altitude drop of 424m (start elevation: 1925m, finish: 1501m) claimed its fair share of DNFs.
Arif Khan’s best ever finish before these Winter Olympics in the giant slalom event came in the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where his time of 1:50:03 (over two runs) was enough to rank 45th in the standings. Prior to that result, he had only managed 91st (2013, Austria), 101st (2015, USA) and 116th (2019, Sweden) in the World Championships.
