I am a big fan of the Olympic games, be it winter or summer variety. One of the things about the nature of the winter Olympics is that you don't see many athletes of African descent competing in them very often.
In Calgary there were the Jamaican bobsledders in 1988 who were immortalized in the movie Cool Runnings and competed at Albertville in 1992. There was Kenyan cross country skier and three time Olympian Philip Boit competing in the 10K event at Nagano in 1998, in Salt Lake in 2002 and in Turin in 2006. Boit fell just two points short of the ISF qualifying standard of 300 points in order to compete in his fourth winter games.
In Vancouver, say hello to the Snow Leopard, aka Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong of Ghana.
He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but as a baby moved with his parents to his homeland. He returned to the UK in 2000 to attend college and while working at Milton Keynes he took a run down a 170 meter indoor ski slope that changed his life and got him hooked on the sport.
Since then Aceampong has made the remarkable self-financed leap from that indoor run to the World Cup ski circuit. He's been the only continental African on the World Cup tour since 2005 and barely missed qualifying for the 2006 Turin Games downhill race.By March 2009 he'd reached his goal of qualifying for the Vancouver Games by getting his International Ski Federation rating down from over 1000 to the ISF qualifying standard of less than 140.
Qualifying was only the beginning. In addition to sticking to his training regimen, he had to do all the paperwork required to be recognized and registered by the Ghana Olympic Committee.
It wasn't easy for the Snow Leopard and there were some trying times along the way. Being self financed on the World Cup circuit meant there were many competitions in which he slept in his freezing cold van overnight.
When the men's giant slalom competition gets underway at Whistler on February 21, he will become the first person ever from Ghana to compete in the Winter Games. It's an even more remarkable feat considering the 34 year old has only been skiing for six years.Aceampong is not only chasing Olympic gold in the giant slalom and slalom, he has another dream he's working hard to fulfill.
"As well as doing my best at the Olympics, I want to make an impact that leaves a legacy for future generations that will one day see the Ghana ski team as a serious competitor on the international stage."
