Arif Alaftargil was 24 years old at the time of the Nagano Olympics, and was making his Olympic debut.[6] In the two-run men's slalom, held on 21 February, he finished the first run in a time of 1 minute and 12.36 seconds.[7] He completed the second run in a similar time of 1 minute and 12.73 seconds,[8] making his combined time 2 minutes and 25.09 seconds.[9] This placed him 29th, out of 31 skiers who finished both legs of the race; however over 30 skiers failed to finish both runs.[9] The gold medal was won in 1 minute and 49.31 seconds by Hans Petter Buraas of Norway, the silver by fellow Norwegian Ole Kristian Furuseth, and the bronze was taken by Thomas Sykora of Austria.[9]