Saturday, February 27, 2010

My Olympic Hero

Name - Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong
Origins - From Ghana born in UK [Glasgow, Scotland]
AKA - The Snow Leopard
Hometown - Mamfe Akwapim
Location - Prowling Alpine Areas
Height Standing - 5ft 10 Inches
Weight - 85kg
Paw Size - Large
Eye Colour - Cat Brown
Food - Carnivorous
Music - Anything with a good beat/grove
Sports - Alpine skiing and most competitive sports
Family - Married with 2 kids
Education – 2 degrees [M.A Tourism Management]
Ground Speed on Paws – Last timed over 100m – 11.23 seconds
Fastest Ground Speed on Skis – 90km per hour

Kwame was born in Glasgow 1974 whilst his father was studying for a masters degree at the University of Glasgow. Kwame then returned to his homeland of Ghana and then also lived in Zambia, Nigeria before returning back to Ghana for his formative years. In 2000 Kwame left Ghana to return to Britain where he settled in Milton Keynes.

As well as being a professional ski racer Kwame has achieved academic success completing a first degree in Geography and Tourism in Cape Coast University, central Region, Ghana. He then went on complete a Masters in Westminster University in Tourism Management(MA). Kwame is married with two young children. He admits to being a sporting fanatic and achieved some success with other sports including tennis, badminton, football, basketball, volleyball, badminton, table tennis and athletics.

Kwame achieved his dream of qualifying with a points tally below 140 points whilst racing in the Iranian National Championships on invitation from the Iranian ski federation. His qualification races also saw The Snow Leopard compete in Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Germany and France.

Kwame, The Snow Leopard has qualified for the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 and will be representing Ghana. Being from African heritage and from a country without snow makes his participation particularly special, he is the first skier from Ghana and one of only a handful from the African continent. What makes Kwame’s dream and journey to the Olympics even more incredible is that be only starting skiing just over 5 years ago at the Xscape in Milton Keynes, England.




5 comments:

Bruno Laliberté said...

it's hardly a surprise you fell for this guy. and hey!! he didn't come in last...
good for him!!
:)~
HUGZ

Sean Newbury said...

That's right... and when you consider ow many didn't even complete their runs, I have to say he did pretty damn good! He should be prouud of not only making it into the Olympics but completeting a run that many repeat athletes couldn't!

Bruno Laliberté said...

i couldn't SO agree more.
almost half didn't make it,
like 40%!!!!!!!

ouch!!!!
:D~

Sean Newbury said...

THat's it! And as he only picked up the sport a couple years ago... How many of us could do the same? I know I couldn't. Kudos tohim! And ALL Athletes that competed.

Bruno Laliberté said...

amen to that!!
when i hear some of them apologize, it burns me. they made it on the olympic team. just shut up and give it your best. that's all we ask for...