Kwame Ready To Race
Kwame Ready To Race
Published : 20-Feb-2010 07:24
Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, now known as the Snow Leopard, who started skiing just over five years ago at Milton Keynes SNO!zone in England, has qualified for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and will be representing Ghana in the men's slalom event Whistler on February 27.After years of struggling for support to continue training and to make it to FIS competitions around the world, sleeping in airports and using borrowed gear, Kwame is now a star of the Olympics and has been featured in national news publications in more than 100 countries worldwide.
In Whistler, the resort's publicity department report that he has developed a bond with the Host Mountain Resort for the 2010 Winter Games where he's close to realizing his Olympic dream. Tourism Whistler worked with the Canadian Tourism Commission, as part of its Connecting with Canadians program, to bring Kwame to Whistler last July - providing him with the opportunity to get familiar with the resort and meet locals who would soon become his biggest fans.
"Kwame was able to visit the alpine venue, experience summer skiing on Whistler's Horstman Glacier and, with his family, he also enjoyed riding the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, ziplining in Whistler's temperate rainforest, cycling the Valley Trail, canoeing on Alta Lake, and visiting the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre." said a resort statement.
"Kwame is a talented athlete with a natural gift that could allow him to do well at a number of sports. It's our good fortune that he chose skiing, because he's quickly becoming one of the most popular figures in the 2010 Winter Games here in Whistler," says Breton Murphy, manager of destination media relations at Tourism Whistler. "Whistler is a place where skiers of his ability get a lot of respect for what they are able to do on the slopes, and Kwame is no exception to that."
As Murphy notes, not since the Jamaican bobsleigh team took the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics by storm has there been such a stir of excitement around an unlikely competitor. Born in the UK, Kwame is one of only a few Africans on the World Cup skiing circuit and has spent nearly all his life in Ghana. He returned to the UK in 2000 and began skiing after taking a job at the Milton Keynes SNO!zoine soon after it opoened, soon becoming skilled enough to compete internationally.
Now, with the 2010 Winter Games underway in Whistler and all the events and celebrations taking place throughout the resort, Kwame's story continues to stand out as a testament of the Olympic spirit. "People like Kwame, who have overcome obstacles that most of us couldn't begin to imagine, are part of the reason that the Winter Games are so motivating to people. Here's a guy with a family who trains hard, skis hard, and supports charities that work in underdeveloped areas in Ghana. Whistler is proud to host such an inspirational athlete at the 2010 Winter Games," says Murphy.
cS24
www.ghanaskiteam.com
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