Ghana Is Sending a Skier to the 2010 Olympics
Ghana Is Sending a Skier to the 2010 Olympics
[ February 1, 2010 - 3:00pm ]
Kwame "The Snow Leopard" Nkrumah-Acheampong, who learned to ski just six years ago -- at a snow dome -- hopes to inspire his countrymen.
Staging in the starthouse alongside such skiing stars as Bode Miller and Benjamin Raich at the 2010 Olympic slopes will be a lesser known -- but no less driven -- Olympian. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, who will be skiing under the colors of Ghana, his home country, learned to ski just six years ago at an artificial snow dome in England, but has nevertheless qualified for the Vancouver Games. Racing with the nickname "The Snow Leopard," Nkrumah-Acheampong is hoping his efforts will encourage other Ghanians to strive for greatness. "That more people are going to come into snow sports, that's what I'm hoping to achieve," he told CNN. "Ten years from now Ghana should have a ski racer who is 10 times better than me," he told CNN. Nkrumah-Acheampong is also racing on behalf of two charities: the Snow Leopard Trust, which works to protect the endangered central Asian species; and a UK-based charity that Nkrumah-Acheampong says "takes kids in tough areas of London and out to the Alps, showing them a different side of life."
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Many African athletes fail to even get to the Olympics because of a lack of money as well as sports equipment and training facilities (no snow is of course a major setback). The athletes that do make it scrape up money to train in Europe, Canada or the US. Some put wheels under their skis to be able to train at home. Find out below who Africa's Winter Olympians were, what sports they competed in, and their results.
By the early 1960s, dark, solid ties became very common, with widths slimming down to as little as 1. The 1960s brought about an influx of pop art influenced designs. The first was designed by Michael Fish when he worked at Turnbull & Asser, and was introduced in Britain in 1965; the term Kipper tie was a pun on his name. Thanks for the nice post.
Love to hear about this information. Good luck and hope that there will be many athletes of Ghana can competite in Winter Olympic Games
I think Ghana did pretty well. At least Kwame wasn't last or disqualified.
Go Ghana!
great to hear that ghana is expanding there options ..it really good to know that they also will be participating in skying.
We are looking forward to your success, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong. Good luck to you!
I can't believe he learned to ski so well in just 6 months. Then he actually did pretty well in the slalom, finishing only 21 seconds behind the leader.
Brenda
Wow,
Good for him. It's about time we got closer to truly being equals in the world and what better way to show it then at the world's oldest competitive games. And what makes it even more amazing is that ghana is a landlocked country with very few places with the ability to ski. It just gives me so much hope that one day my country of kazhakistan may be able to even participate. The U.N doesn't like us :(
Hey, more power to him. Hope he does well. This guy is the definition of awesome. I've been to Ghana and it is HOT. all the best to Ghana and the "snow leopard."
This kinda reminds me of that one movie, what was it called again. Hold on let me google it. Ahh that's it, cool runnings. That movie was awesome. It just provides so much inspiration when you see someone from a dry/tropical country compete in a winter sport like bobsledding or in this case skiing. Very moving.
Good to see such a good level of sportsman spirit in Nkrumah-Acheampong. Skiing is an interesting sport and at the same time the most dangerous one. So take care.
Good sportsman spirit Nkrumah-Acheampong. Wish you all the success for your career. This indirectly shows his love for the home country.
Wow, I just finally saw the footage. It almost brought a tear to my eye when I saw him cross the finish line. Truly awe-inspiring and something I wouldn't soon forget. A true marvel of modern day culture. Once again, like I said before, congrats to to ghana, that's a big victory.
I can't wait to get back in the powder. I live all the way down here in The Woodlands Texas so I've got quite a drive before I can ski. We went to Colorado last season and had a blast. It was my first time to go. I've done tons of water skiing but the snow was definitely better.
This is quite an interesting article. Does anyone know what became of the skier from the country with no snow on his trip to Canada?
Wow. That's very inspiring. I myself am from Nicaragua and love to see moving stories like that of one person giving hope to an entire country. What makes it even better is the fact that he is from a dry and landlocked country and he's making big moves in a snow sport. That's just amazing. I'm gonna have to watch the footage from that, (as it already happened now but somehow I missed it). Anyways thanks.
I think this is so good that they are send a person from Ghana to ski. I know this is very strange but i am glad to see it. This means skiing is getting more popular.