An African skier who first set eyes on snow five years ago has reportedly qualified for the Winter Olympics.
Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong won the nickname ‘The Snow Leopard’ after notching up enough points to compete in the slalom and giant slalom at next year’s event in Vancouver.
The 33-year-old hailed his achievement as a “magical moment” and said he hoped it would change the perception of those who think Africans can’t ski. He told The Daily Telegraph that he was born in Scotland, where his father was a student, but was raised in Ghana and never saw a snowflake until he moved back to the UK in 2002.
Taking a job as a receptionist at a ski centre in Milton Keynes, Nkrumah-Acheampong was said to be a natural and went on to spend his debut professional season in 2004 at Meribel in the French Alps. He has since spent the last four winters in the Italian Alps.
He said: “All I had ever known about skiing was watching a James Bond film, so it really just took off from there….Even now, when I go to big events, there are people who refuse to believe that an African can ski. They sort of stare and shout, ‘Here comes the strange man’.
“These Winter Olympics will be my last chance, so hopefully I will leave a legacy that has changed people’s views of African skiers.”
Nkrumah-Acheampong has also launched a campaign to encourage youngsters in Ghana to take up the sport. “We gave them grass skis and then took them to a fish refrigeration unit at Tema to let them feel what the cold is like,” he said.
By Sarah Rollo,
