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Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Arif Khan had simply realized methods to stroll when he had his first expertise of snowboarding over the snowy slopes of Gulmarg, a picturesque meadow resort in northern Indian-administered Kashmir.
He was 4 and his father, Muhammad Yaseen, was his first tutor.
In contrast to cricket and hockey, winter sports activities occasions usually are not common in India. Nevertheless, Kashmir is among the many few northern states the place winter sports activities actions happen.
With little infrastructure or skilled assist, Khan stored snowboarding each winter on the snowy slopes situated 40km (25 miles) from his house, the place Yaseen had been operating a snowboarding tools store for 40 years.
Khan would make the tiring stroll up the slopes together with the tools, and would race downhill.
The journey up the slops was eased in 1998 when cable automobile companies have been began. However even then, there was no tools to smoothen the snow and Khan would work on the slopes manually for hours. It grew to become a snowboarding journey from scratch, reaching its peak when he grew to become India’s sole consultant on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Khan completed forty fifth within the Large Slalom and was unable to finish the Slalom occasion, getting disqualified from the competitors after a mistake on the best way.
He mentioned his journey to changing into knowledgeable had been an uphill job on account of an absence of funding, superior infrastructure, skilled teaching, and a deteriorating political state of affairs within the area, which has seen frequent turmoil within the final 20 years.
However regardless of all of the obstacles, qualifying for the Winter Olympics was an achievement, the skier from a non-descript village of Hajibal had earned a spot within the area’s sports activities historical past.
“I began snowboarding in 1994 in Gulmarg the place my father launched me to the game as he has been a tour information for many years and ran a ski tools store,” Khan instructed Al Jazeera.
He added that he continued coaching at house till 2003 when he made a debut within the skilled championship at India’s junior stage after which represented India, saying that he has represented India in additional than 100 worldwide occasions.
“In the course of the nationwide championships, I used to be principally successful the race,” mentioned Khan, earlier than including that his worldwide journey began in 2005 when he represented India on the inaugural Asian Kids’s Nationwide Championship in China.
Seeing his progress and the laurels he introduced, his father grew to become extra targeted on coaching.
“I used to be made to work exhausting and develop extra abilities,” he mentioned.
In 2008, when Khan was lastly in a position to practice in Switzerland, he was amazed on the stage of infrastructure, slopes and training.
“What was comparable was the mountains and snow, it was the identical as Kashmir. After coaching for 2 to a few weeks, I made a decision to get skilled there professionally as I didn’t have any worldwide coaching earlier than, and I set my eyes on the Olympics,” Khan mentioned.
In 2011, Khan was extra pushed to the game and received two gold medals on the South Asian Winter Video games.
However his journey to the Olympics was not going to be a simple one.
“If I wished to coach overseas, there have been monetary issues. We didn’t have a lot tourism [in Kashmir] throughout these days, we couldn’t earn a lot to coach me professionally in Europe,” he recalled.
“Through the years, I made increasingly more connections with individuals and a few individuals from Delhi supplied me some monetary assist. It wasn’t a full-scale assist although.”
One of many main obstacles to reaching his goals was the political turmoil within the area.
Within the final 10 years, the area witnessed a number of civilian uprisings and was locked down for months, bringing life to a crippling halt. It additionally brought about vital losses to the tourism sector which is a livelihood for 1000’s of individuals within the area, together with Khan’s father.
In 2016, when insurgent commander Burhan Wani was killed by Indian safety forces, it triggered months of protests and as life got here to a halt, the Khan household’s solely supply of earnings took a success too.
“Within the final decade, now we have misplaced a lot of tourism which is the one supply of earnings for us. These days have been very tough. The psychological stress was immense There have been demonstrations and other people would hardly consider being knowledgeable athlete.”
The tourism sector in Kashmir has been going via the worst disaster in recent times with many individuals dropping their jobs and tour brokers in search of alternate alternatives to earn a livelihood because of the unstable political state of affairs.
The area was but to get better from the earlier setbacks when the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020.
It is just this 12 months, after the third wave of the pandemic began to say no, that home tourism has began choosing up.
“In these years, it appeared no one had objectives. Everybody had given up and we couldn’t stick with it,” mentioned Khan, rapidly including that he additionally had a realisation that “if I quit, there wouldn’t be one other probability”.
“I aimed to be on the Olympics. That was a dream. I wished to symbolize India there. I wished to indicate we additionally belong to winter sports activities, now we have the mountains, now we have the snow, and now we have the sweetness. I wished to introduce Kashmir to the remainder of the world.”
Yaseen recalled the household’s struggles whereas being elated at his son’s progress.
“After I introduced him right here [Gulmarg], we didn’t have a lot earnings. There have been few amenities. He struggled, however we remained constant in making him be taught. Greater than me, my buddies are blissful over his achievements,” Yaseen mentioned.
“He missed two earlier Olympics due to a number of causes. Now that he’s carried out that, you need to go for extra and carry out higher and win medals,” he added.
He had little hope of successful a medal however Khan’s expectation in Beijing was to ski down properly and make it to the end line.
“The situation was so horrible that in the event you tried exhausting to complete quicker, there have been possibilities of not ending the race and it’s type of one occasion that I attempted to complete quicker however on account of some mistake, I used to be out on the race.
“To win a medal, it is advisable to put together for 10 years and have a large finances. In a rustic like India, the place winter sport just isn’t so common, you may hardly get any assist and sponsorship or authorities funding.”
Khan now has his eyes set on the 2026 Olympics.
“There will probably be extra possibilities of receiving assist or time for coaching tools and journey. That is additionally the very best time to advertise sport throughout the nation and likewise throughout the Kashmir Valley.
“Kashmir is all about mountains and snow. It’s our pure recreation,” he mentioned, hoping that the game will uplift the area’s battered financial system.
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