Biathlon: Russian Olympic medallist Said Karimulla Khalili has Afghan roots
Having been banned from international competitions since March 2022 like the other Russian biathletes, Said Karimulla Khalili admitted in a podcast broadcast on YouTube that he had thought about creating a biathlon federation in Afghanistan, his country of origin.
However, it wasn’t Russia’s suspension from the IBU circuits that got him thinking. “It was more when I was still a junior. It seemed to me that getting into the main team, when Tsvetkov, Loginov and Babikov were there, was unrealistic, he says. At the time, these thoughts crossed my mind.”
In a country with no biathlon culture, Said Karimulla Khalili didn’t go any further than that.
Now a pillar of the Russian national team, the reigning Olympic relay silver medallist won the overall national cup this winter.
