Indian alpine skier Mohammad Arif Khan is 53rd in the men’s giant slalom event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after a challenging Run 1 on Sunday.
Arif Khan clocked 1:22.35 in the first run at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, 19.42s behind leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. The Jammu and Kashmir-born skier was making his Winter Games debut at the event.
“Today, there were like millions of people watching me live back home. I was trying my best to give the best I have got. But the weather was uncertain, you couldn’t see much… like how the slope was used, but it was good,” Arif Khan told Olympics.com after his run.
In giant slalom – an alpine skiing event – athletes ski down a slope in the quickest time possible while ensuring they pass between sets of gates. Competitors get two runs and are ranked according to their cumulative times – lower is better – over both attempts.
Failure to pass between any gate in Run 1 deems a run as DNF (Did Not Finish). A DNF in run 1 means the athlete can’t participate in the second run.
At Beijing 2022, the giant slalom event took place on the 424m ‘Ice River’ course with a start altitude of 1925m and finish altitude of 1501m.
With a field of 89 from 62 nations starting off the men’s giant slalom race, Arif Khan queued up 85th in the start list for Run 1.
With low visibility due to incessant snowing and conditions worsening as the race progressed, the number of DNFs kept piling up as the field thinned down.
Heading into Arif Khan’s run, 32 competitors had DNFs and two did not start (DNS). The Indian skier understandably took a cautious approach, watching his speed down the sharp turns to finish his first run successfully in 1:22.35 seconds.
Arif Khan was 53rd among the 54 competitors who managed to finish Run 1 and earned a starting spot in Run 2.
If Arif Khan successfully finishes Run 2, he will record India’s best-ever finish in giant slalom at the Winter Games. Jeremy Bujakowski, India’s first-ever Winter Olympian, held the previous record with a 65th place finish at Grenoble 1968.
Arif Khan’s men’s giant slalom Run 2 live start time for India and where to watch live streaming
Run 2 was set to begin at 11:15 AM IST in India but due to the weather conditions, the starting time has been delayed. It will now not start before 12:30 PM IST in India.
Watch live streaming of Arif Khan’s men’s giant slalom Run 2 at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on the Olympics.com website and YouTube channel.