JK's alpine skier Arif Khan eyes top-30 finish in Winter Olympics

The 31-year-old Khan is the lone Indian participant in the Feb. 4-20 quadrennial event.

He secured his berth in the Winter Olympics in a qualifying event in Dubai last year.

To be honest, if you want to be a medal contender, you require at least 10 years of training and preparation, (need) to have a (decent) budget and funding, only then it’s possible to be in medal contention, Khan, an Alpine skier, said at a virtual  interaction organised by the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Sunday.

"I have been training for over a couple of years seriously and my expectation is to be in the world’s top 30,” he said.

Khan will take part in the Slalom and Giant Slalom events in Beijing that will take place on Feb. 13 and Feb. 16 respectively.

“This sport is very different and you can never be consistent at winning. Even if you make one mistake while going down the hill, it is like doing. You make a mistake and you are out of the game, added Khan, who hails from Jammu and  Kashmir.

The skier, who was included in the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS),  said that his performance has improved and his training in Santa Catarina was helpful.

"Last year, my training was taken care of well. I have been performing much  better than I used to before," the J&K skier said.

“We will have two runs, the first run is always described as the best run and if you  make it through, the next run can really make it to the podium. If there are mistakes, you might go out of the game," he said.

Khan stressed the importance of mental preparation ahead of the quadrennial event.

"Yeah, exactly, we always have trainers for mental preparation and balance. You  know sports always depends, this sport especially 70 percent on mental  preparation," he added.

"If you are physically so strong and able to go down the hill super-fast, but mentally if you are disturbed and not focussed you are not able to pay attention, you can create mistakes and go out of the race. To be mentally stable, we always  train with our feelings, he elaborated.

"It feels so great, I am going to represent 1.4 billion people, it is an achievement  like being an athlete as well as being a citizen of India, it is super exciting," Khan said.