Ghana at the Winter Olympics

On Friday, Ghana will make its Winter Olympic Debut in Vancouver. Ghana debuted at the 1952 Summer Olympic Games of Helsinki as the colony of Gold Coast and has competed every other time since except for 1956 and its boycotts of the 1976 and 1980. Ghana has medaled four times, never Gold, with Boxers in the 1960s and 1970s and has most recently won bronze with its Soccer team in 1992, Barcelona.

As Ghana's first Winter Olympic athlete, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is certainly making a splash as "The Snow Leopard." Nkrumah-Acheampong is 35 and was born in Scotland, before he moved to Ghana as a child. He was a safari guide before returning to Great Britain in the year 2000. He discovered the sport after becoming a secretary at a British ski center has since went on to found the Ghana Winter Olympic Association. He has secured funding from the government to build an artificial ski slope in the hills north of Accra and has attracted major attention from British news outlets and even sponsorship from Basecamp Adventure Sports group.

In a BBC interview he states that "The only thing we [Africans] have to overcome is the cold." For links with video, click here for his Mail Online piece and here for his BBC Sport piece. Let's hear it for Kwame and Ghana!