Indians at Milano Cortina: Stanzin Lundup finishes 104th, Arif Khan next

India’s Stanzin Lundup finished 104th in the men’s 10km freestyle cross-country skiing event at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday. The 27-year-old Indian Army athlete completed the race in 28 minutes 26.7 seconds , trailing Norwegian Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo by 7 minutes 50.5 seconds . Klaebo won his eighth Winter Olympics gold with a timing of 20:36.2. France’s Mathis Desloges (20:41.1) claimed silver, while Norway’s Einar Hedegart (20:50.2) took bronze. Of the 113 starters , 111 finished the race, which included uphill, downhill, and flat sections.

Lundup’s selection by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was controversial , with a Delhi High Court ruling that skier Manjeet , ranked higher, was unfairly excluded. The IOA defended its decision, citing eligibility deadlines, and the Sports Ministry cleared Lundup’s participation without government expenditure.

Stanzin Lundup became the fifth Indian in history to compete in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics , following Bahadur Gurung Gupta (2006), Tashi Lundup (2010), Nadeem Iqbal (2014), and Jagdish Singh (2018).

India’s campaign will conclude on Monday with Mohammad Arif Khan competing in the men’s slalom alpine skiing event at 11:00 AM local time . This will be his second Winter Olympics , having previously participated in slalom and giant slalom at Beijing 2022.