Skier Arif Khan, India’s solely athlete at Beijing Games, confronted uphill battles with worldly strategy
Farhat Naik, greatest mates with India’s solely Winter Games Olympian competing in Beijing Arif Khan, recollects his former classmate as soon as rising in school to appropriate the pronunciation of ‘asthma’ – as enunciated by their aged English instructor, Abdul Ghani. “Arif had just returned from a training stint in the USA. He confidently stood up and told Ghani Sir, that it’s ‘as-muh’ not ‘astha-maa’. Imagine this was happening in a government school at Chandi Pora village,” Farhat chuckles, recalling a classmate who all the time stood out for his polished manners and obsession with precision. To his credit score, the clever outdated instructor inspired the correction, making the entire class repeat it. Though classmates in increased secondary usually ribbed him for his “Amrican accent”, asking him to learn out paras from textbooks.
Arif may’ve secured a belated qualification for the Olympics in Alpine snowboarding slalom and large slalom at age 31, however the J&Okay skier was all the time primed for the large league, travelling extensively to pursue his aggressive ardour. Funded by his father who ran a ski tools rental store, and self-taught since age 5 travelling to Gulmarg, Arif nailed his qualifying spot at Dubai final 12 months.
The skier had adopted within the ridge-marks of 80s zigzaggers Shabbir Wani and Gul Mustafa. But it was the lonely battle of his skiing-lover father that helped Arif compete within the US, Canada and Europe, when the March 15 deadline hovered, and the snow circumstances obtained too slushy to proceed slaloming down Indian slopes. When his Class 12 exams clashed with a meet in Iran, Arif’s father permitted him to drop college, and select sport.
Arif had missed the Pyeongchang Games after falling in need of one race in Europe 4 years in the past. “He was bitterly disappointed. But he didn’t let that demotivate him. He went and trained with double drive the next winter,” Farhat recollects. Private corporations the household approached for sponsorship seldom knew what slalom or snowboarding implied. “They would say, ‘We’ll see, but we don’t even know the rules’ and hand over Rs 10,000 or something,” Farhat provides.
Arif began travelling alone submit sub-juniors to chop down prices, lugging his 22kg tools. “Equipment can run into 10-12 lakhs, and has to be recognised by the international federation. Sometimes specifications of the skis, padding or helmets changed every 2-3 years running into 600 Euros. Just socks could cost Rs 5,000, a helmet 2.5 lakh and shoes 50-60 thousand. It was only his father who would keep arranging funds. Last year Mr Jindal was here for skiing, so Arif finally got support,” Farhat says.
The “Englishman ways” — wearing sharp fits and carrying an umbrella — Farhat recollects amused, got here from a wierd recurrence when Arif travelled. “BBC, NYT would chase him as the only Indian competing. But our press didn’t know about him,” he says. The most assist until 2018 got here from household mates who hosted him across the New Zealand snow peaks of the Southern Hemisphere winters.
Like Harry Potter’s Firebolt, Arif coveted an improve from Atomics to the fancier Rossignol. “Never saw him so happy when he managed to get that. But he really got emotional in Dubai after qualifying, and broke down on the phone when he qualified to represent India,” Farhat recollects.
It wasn’t an opportunity qualification both. Farhat remembers Arif hitting the excessive icy Gulmarg slopes alone at 5.30 a.m, as dawn signalled melting of the snow, not conducive to coaching. “Then whole day he trained for physical fitness. He is obsessed with keeping calories in check. Imagine, I know him for years and have seen him have the whole of Wazwan only twice in my life, skipping it at my sister’s wedding too. Him coming home for breakfast would mean not chai and girda (kashmiri roti) but half-boiled egg. No oil or spice,” he recollects.
Just previous his teenagers, Farhat remembers Arif as soon as questioning sorrowfully why the naturally wonderful slope at Gulmarg couldn’t be merely cleared of boulders and levelled, so it might be licensed by the worldwide physique. But he would begin channelling all of the frustration into getting fitter. “He loves Virat Kohli, and took his inspiration to stay fit. At village cricket games, Arif is an excellent wicket-keeper. Besides cricket, he also loves cycling. Another angrez habit he cultivated was playing golf. He had a full set of clubs.”
An introvert who’s deeply spiritual, Farhat says Arif has been so single-minded about representing India on the Olympics, that he by no means made time for mates. “Bas, girlfriend nahi banaayi usne (he never had time for a girlfriend),” he clucks. Scheduled to marry the daughter of their next-door neighbours final December in an organized match, Arif postponed marriage ceremony plans when the Beijing qualification occurred. “Both families will cheer for him now,” Farhat says, as will the remainder of the nation.
