About Gary King

I’m a writer, speaker and lover of all things that raise the heartbeat and tickle the senses. If there is one thing that I’ve learnt from my years of extreme sport and adventure travel is that life is for living - not spectating.

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Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong AKA The Snow Leopard

By Gary King on 27 January 2010 21:47:14

The Snow Leopard's Tale is one of true grit and determination against the odds.

The Snow Leopard preparing for Vancouver 2010

“I’m my own coach, doctor, physio and driver when I’m skiing,” says Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, “I sometimes have to sleep in my van and there’s been many a time that I’ve had to come home early from a competition because I’ve run out of money.”

Nkrumah-Acheampong is the only black African on the international skiing circuit and is set to become Ghana’s first ever athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics. Not since Calgary 1988 when Eddie the Eagle flew through the skies and the Jamaican bobsleigh team inspired the film Cool Runnings will there be such furore surrounding one competitor.

What makes this story even more compelling is that Nkrumah-Acheampong AKA The Snow Leopard has only been skiing for 6 years. Although the 34 year old was born in Glasgow, he moved back to Ghana as a baby and spent the next 25 years in his homeland where the temperature rarely dips below 80F.

He returned to the UK in 2000 to attend Westminster University and eventually took a job working on the reception at the Xscape indoor ski slope in Milton Keynes. It was an offer of work that was to change the course of his life for ever.

“After I’d been there for about a week I had one thirty minute lesson and by the end of that I was able to do a hockey stop.”

To the uninitiated, this is the snow billowing halt that the pros come to in a dramatic flourish after screaming across a finishing line. Impressive stuff for a man who’s only other contact with the white stuff was when it fluttered onto his head upon arrival in Heathrow a few years before.

From that point he was hooked and within six months he was sliding down rails, doing jumps and basically ripping up the indoor slope. Dave Jacobs, the then junior British coach offered to train him and put him in touch with some ski industry movers and shakers.

“We made some T shirts that had ‘Ghana Ski Team’ printed on them and we wore them to a ski show in London to do some networking. This man approached us and asked us if we were serious or just having a laugh.”

Again another pivotal moment in Nkrumah-Acheampong’s career because the bemused inquisitor happened to be Fergie Miller, director of the international ski school, Base Camp Group. Miller ended up providing The Ghana Ski Team with an all expenses paid season in Meribel where he was able to hone his skills with professional instructors on a real mountain.

In 2005 he joined the international race circuit. The quantum leap to go from a ski resort to a racing slope is virtually unimaginable; think black ice runs that are as hard as concrete, fearsome jumps and bone rattling corners. What’s more his inclusion is no token offering by the IOC. Nkrumah-Acheampong has got there on his own merits.

“In order to qualify for Vancouver 2010 I need to have an International Ski Federation rating of less than 140. I’ve brought this down from over 1000 in the last 4 years by competing in ISF affiliated races all over the world.”

As well as the racing he has spent the last four seasons in Val Di Fiemme in Italy grinding out the mountain time. When he’s back in Milton Keynes with his wife and young family he can be found pounding the streets at five thirty in the morning or pumping weights in the gym.

With his first Olympic race in less than a month The Snow Leopard, well aware that the world’s eyes will be upon him is in bullish mood.

“I will give it everything in Vancouver,” he says , “I’m going to do all I can to get up that finishing table and in doing so I hope to inspire a new generation of youngsters to join the Ghana Ski Team. When they step out onto those Olympic slopes in the years to come I’ll be there to cheer them on.”

I bet they’re already sharpening their pencils in Hollywood.

For more information on Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong visit www.ghanaskiteam.com

This article first in The Daily Telegraph - The Snow Leopard Earns his Spot.