Cool Runnings 2

[mr.x]

Ghana's only winter athlete went from 'zero' to Olympics


By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
July 30, 2009

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the self-styled Snow Leopard of Ghana, knows he's literally in a league of his own.

In a country known more in sporting circles for boxing and soccer, Nkrumah-Acheampong is not just the president of the fledgling Ghana Ski Team. He's its chief fundraiser, booster and its only skier.

Oh, and he's also Ghana's first and only athlete to qualify for any Winter Olympics. Ever.

When Nkrumah-Acheampong, 34, walks into BC Place Stadium in the parade of athletes for the 2010 Winter Games in February in his trademark white-leopard-spotted uniform, he'll be representing a hot equatorial African country that has no major mountains and no snow, though it sometimes hails.

"And that's not easy to ski on," he joked.

Last weekend, Nkrumah-Acheampong visited Whistler with his wife and two children and saw for the first time the slope where he'll race the slalom and giant slalom in February. He then strapped on some skis and raced down Whistler Glacier with Britt Janyk, a member of Canada's alpine ski team.

"It was fantastic. Whistler is so incredible," Nkrumah-Acheampong gushed. "But I worry about the glacier. There's not too much snow there because of global warming."

To say that Nkrumah-Acheampong is an oddity in the high-octane world of downhill skiing is something of an understatement. Even the Ghana Olympic Committee has been somewhat perplexed about his desire to ski for his country.

"It's been difficult to explain to the Ghana Olympic Committee," Nkrumah-Acheampong admitted. "They said, 'That's not something we do.'"

But it is something that Nkrumah-Acheampong does with gusto, and he has become so good at in the last six years that in March he qualified for the 2010 Games by breaking the magical 140-point barrier set by FIS, the International Ski Federation.

Nkrumah-Acheampong was born in Scotland while his father was working on a doctorate, but lived most of his life in Ghana and Nigeria.

He took up skiing six years ago after moving back to Britain after finishing two university degrees, one of them in sport tourism. He was working at Xscape snow dome in Milton Keynes, an indoor ski hill near London, when he discovered how much he loved schussing down the artificial slope.

So Nkrumah-Acheampong joined the international ski circuit, becoming something of a celebrity as the only black African on skis. He collected a few corporate sponsorships to help defray costs, but he and his wife Sena have largely self-funded his efforts. A proficient skier, he nonetheless has usually finished well back in the pack.

Along the way, a journalist dubbed him the Snow Leopard, and the name stuck.

Coached by a friend, David Jacobs, Nkrumah-Acheampong narrowly missed qualifying for the 2006 Turin Games. Rather than hang up his skis, he literally threw himself into his sport, racking up increasingly better results in France, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Argentina, Sweden and Norway.

Nkrumah-Acheampong has drawn the inevitable comparisons to Michael (Eddie the Eagle) Edwards, Britain's hapless ski-jumper, and the odd-squad Jamaican bobsled team that qualified for the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

But Nkrumah-Acheampong says he's different from Eddie. "Eddie the Eagle let things get out of hand, and it became an embarrassment," he said. "I'm not willing to let that happen. I told myself I could race professionally, and I have."

As for his chances of a medal in Whistler? "Hah. I am a very realistic person and I know there is virtually no chance of that," he said. "I rather want to show people that you can do something when you come from a zero skier to qualifying for the Olympics in six years."

But he does have goals: he wants to beat a few of his competitors from other countries. Such as? "Well, India and Pakistan. They at least have snow."

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http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010w...nt+from+zero+Olympics/1844215/story.html