After Olympic shun, McKeever wins gold

Winning a gold medal in the Paralympics 20-km cross country event must be a bitter sweet moment for Brian McKeever. As a visually impaired athlete, McKeever was only hours away from skiing for his country in the Olympic Games, when he was told by his coach he would not be competing.

Less than a month later, McKeever stands atop the world at the Paralympics after winning Canada's first ever Paralympic gold medal on home soil.

It isn't all smiles and congratulations for McKeever, he still has a foul taste in his mouth from the Vancouver Winter Olympics and a goal in his mind for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

What is sad about this, is the media coverage surrounding McKeever is not for his amazing accomplishment in the Paralympics, it is because he was shunned at the Olympic Games.

McKeever is the kind of athlete children should be looking up to. He aspires to be the best, and in fact, is the best in his sport. Brian McKeever's gold medal at the 2010 Paralympics shouldn't be thought of as second rate; his first Paralympic gold on home soil is every bit as important as the Olympic Gold won by Alexandre Bilodeau.

I wouldn't count McKeever out just yet. If you know anything about the Paralympics, you'll understand that overcoming odds is just a part of the business. For McKeever, despite his visual impairment, the 2014 Olympic Games are still very much in sight.

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Meet Ghana's Winter Olympic hope

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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