Salutations, Arif Khan, Winter Olympian

Before summer sets in, let us raise a glass to the commendable Arif Mohammad Khan, he of Olympian fame, or at least for the record books. The country's sole representative to the Beijing Winter Olympics that concluded on Sunday, Khan is a skier. Sure, he may have finished 45th in the giant slalom event - the skiing between the poles that most of us see White people engage in on TV - and did not finish in the slalom that took place at Xiaohaituo Mountain area near Beijing earlier this month. But the 31-year-old from Gulmarg was the only Indian to qualify for the Olympics. Surprisingly (or not), Khan is the 16th Indian to qualify for the Games. In a country where ice hockey is seen as a freezed-up form of (field) hockey, bobsleigh is usually mistaken for a variety of lynx, and speed skating is mistaken for a video game, the Lithuanian-born Jeremy Bujakowski of Polish parentage and US tutelage was the first to represent India in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. Bujakowski came 53rd and 65th in the downhill and giant slalom events.

In 1988, India sent its biggest contingent - three skiers - at the Games in Calgary, US, with Shailaja Kumar remaining the best Indian Winter Olympian to date. With India doing its best at the Summer Olympics, can winter be far behind? Let's just raise that glass to Arif Khan, shall we?