When you come from a country with an average annual temperature of nearly 80 degrees fahrenheit, downhill skiing is not common place.
When you have a nickname like "snow leopard" and you hail from Ghana, an African nation, downhill skiing is even less common.
Despite the odds, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is Ghana's one and only Olympic hope in Vancouver. I feel a little bit of a 'cool runnings' story in this one. Starting to ski in 2003, it is amazing that any athlete would be able to qualify for an Olympic Games after only 7-years. What is more amazing, it that Nkrumah-Acheampong learned alpine skiing on a dirt hill.
There are so many twists and turns in the story of this Ghaniaan's that it sounds like a movie in the waiting. His nickname the "snow leopard" comes less from his ability on the slopes, and more from the fact that he is working for a charity organization which works to protect the endangered snow leopard.
So what is a man from a warm African nation doing at the Winter Olympics, flying down a hill of snow? Simple, he's proving to himself, his family, and his nation that he can. Nkrumah-Acheampong isn't just in this to participate either, he wants to compete. He wants to honour the tradition of sport and alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics.
Anything is possible in sports. This man first saw snow when he was 25-years-old. Now, he is a Winter Olympian, Ghana's first ever Winter Olympian to be exact.
He will be alone at the Vancouver Olympics, but alpine skiing, and sports fans across the worlds, along with the entire population of Ghana will be cheering for this unique, exciting, and inspiring athlete. Good luck Kwame Nkurumah-Acheampong. Hopefully you will inspire a new generation of athletes to compete.
Let the games begin.
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