Mairaj Ahmad Khan

Khan was born on 2 November 1975 to Ilyas Ahmed and his wife in Khurja, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India.^{[3][9][10][2]} The family are affluent Kheshgi and Sunni Muslims.^[11] Khan's father, uncles, and brother Najam were all state-level trap shooters but none of them pursued it professionally.^[5][3]

As a child, Khan was very interested in cricket and played as a top order batsman. He was eventually named skipper of Uttar Pradesh's U-19 team in the 1990s.^[3][7] At age 10, he placed third in a U-12 50-metre rifle competition and used his prize money to buy a cricket bat. He eventually decided not to pursue cricket professionally and instead turned to skeet shooting after college.^[3] Khan also has a Masters degree. ^[2]

Khan's first international competition was the 2003 ISSF World Cup in Lonato, Italy.^[5][10] He has participated in a number of regional, national, and world competitions, including the ISSF World Shooting Championships, (2000, 2003, 2005-2011, 2013-2016, 2021)^[6][7][5][2] Commonwealth Shooting Championships (2010),^[6][2] Commonwealth Games (2010, 2014),^[7][12][2] Asian Games (2006, 2010, 2014),^[13][2][14] Asian Shooting Championships (2004, 2007-2009, 2011-2014, 2016-2017, 2019),^[2] and the South Asian Federation Shooting Championship (2009).^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, Khan became the first ever Indian skeet shooter to qualify for the Olympics.^{[6][15][9][3][16][17]} At the Rio Olympics, he finished in 9th place.^[18][4] He also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics and finished 25th.^[4] In 2022 in Changwon, South Korea, he became the first Indian skeet shooter to win a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup.^[19][20] This came as a surprise to Khan, who almost quit shooting after his father's 2021 death.^[4]

His coaches throughout his career have included Andrea Benelli,^[2] Sunny Thomas,^[2] Ennio Falco,^[21] and Riccardo Filippelli.^[19] Khan also runs an NGO called MAK Shooting Foundation, which trains future shooting talent.^[10] He coached Angad Vir Singh Bajwa.^[22]