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.

the 2010 Winter Manlympics

As revealing as some Winter Sport uniforms are... I figure that we may as well just take the next step...

Here we see our Mascot...



The Curling Team...



Snow Boarding...



Hockey...





And Skiing...














Is anyone else enjoying the Olympics?

Quick Post #2. The Olympics!

OMG! I am such an Olympic Junky! And so is Pinky!

We've practically spent the entire weekend on sofa, eyes barely blinking for fear of missing a moment,

And this was an amazing weekend. Not only have we succeeded in already obtaining one of each medal, it was the that elusive Gold that was finally won. While not taking away ANY of the glory of the Silver and Bronze, this was an accomplishment most deliciously savoured.

Not only was this finally the end to a most truly Canadian curse (the ONLY host country never to have won a Gold on home turf) Third time's the charm, eh? But in that it was won by bumping a smug, arrogant little prick that forsook his Native Canada to compete for Australia, and condescended at any and every opportunity not only Canada but other countries as well. So to you Dale Begg-Smith I say SUCK IT!

And more importantly I say Congratulations to the first three, of MANY Medalists to come:

BRONZE
Katarina Groves; Speed Skating - Ladies' 3000 m

SILVER
Jennifer Heil; Freestyle Skiing - Ladies' Moguls

GOLD
Alexandre Bilodeau; Freestyle Skiing - Men's Moguls

GO CANADA GO!

Can't stop the music Medals

BRONZE:
Rowing: Men's C-1 1000m
Thomas Hill



SILVER:
Taekwondo: Women's Welter (57-67kg)
Karine Sergerie



- - - - -

I will be away starting this afternoon so won't be able to post* any more Canadian Medalists of which I am CERTAIN there will be more before it's all over... so, let me just say here and now...

WAY TO GO CANADA!
You done good!

- - - - -

* Technically, YES I won't be able to post while away, but that's not to say there won't be at least ONE new post a day while I'm away... I did my homework so come on back even while I'm away...

It ain't over yet...

SILVER:
Diving: Women's 10m Platform
Emilie Heymans

GOLD:
Equestrian: Individual Show Jump
Eric Lamaze (& Hickside)

2004 vs 2008

Canada's total Medal draw at the 2004 Ahtens Olympics was: 12

BRONZE: 3
SILVER: 6
GOLD: 3

This far Canada's Medal draw at the 2008 Beijing Olympics: 13

BRONZE: 5
SILVER: 6
GOLD: 2

- - - - -

Our record is 44 at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, (but then all the communist countries boycotted...):

BRONZE: 16
SILVER: 18
GOLD: 10


The next best results (and on a level playing feild) were 1996's Atlanta Olympics:

BRONZE: 8
SILVER: 11
GOLD: 3

...it ain't over yet!

Awwww yeaaaaaaaaaa

Another day another 4 more medals!

BRONZE:

Athletics: Women's 100-metre hurdles
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep

SILVER:

Triathlon: Men's Individual
Simon Whitfield

Trampoline: Men's Individual
Jason Burnett

Diving: Men's 3 m Springboard
Alexandre Despatie

GO CANADA GO!

once you start...

SILVER:

Trampoline: Women's Individual
Karen Cockburn

Equestrian: Mixed Team
Team Canada
Mac Cone, Ian Millar, Eric Lamaze and Jill Henselwood.

- - - - -

Keep 'em coming!!

More More More

...How do you like it? How do you like it?

The seal has been broken, we continue to rake in the medals...

BRONZE:

Rowing: Men's Lightweight Sculls
Iain Brambell / John Beare / Mike Lewis / Liam Parsons

Rowing: Women's Lightweight Double Sculls
Melanie Kok / Tracy Cameron

Swimming: Men's 1500m Free
Ryan Cochrane

GOLD:

Rowing: Men's Eight with Coxswain
Kevin Light / Ben Rutledge / Andrew Byrnes / Jake Wetzel / Malcolm Howard / Dominic Seiterle / Adam Kreek / Kyle Hamilton / Brian Price

(and can I just say... Kyle Hamilton - back row, third from the right, with the goatee - WOOF! )

- - - - -

GO CANADA!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

The draught is over!

HAZAA! HAZAA! HAZAA!

BRONZE:
Tonya Verbeek
Women's 55kg Wrestling Freestyle

SILVER:
David Calder & Scott Frandsen
Men's Pair - Without Coxswain* - Rowing

GOLD:
Carol Huynh
Women's 48kg Wrestling Freestyle

GO CANADA!

- - - - -

*yea, I haven't got a clue what that means either! lol

I can remember a time...

...when we used to be embarrassed and disappointed at coming in third place...

God, weren't those the days.

Hang in there Canada... I'm still rooting for ya...

a FLAGrant mistake

OK, before anyone chews my head off, I absolutely love and am impressed by the little boy, Lin Hao, who was given the honour of walking with the Chinese Flag Bearer (Basketball player, Yao Ming) during the opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The nine year old survived the Earthquake in Sichuan, China and after being rescued from the rubble of the school he attended, he went back in to help rescue two of his classmates. When asked why he did this he replied, "I was the hall monitor, it was my job to look after my classmates."

Yea I know, sweet story, right?

...but, this has been bugging me since we watched the opening games a week ago... (It's taken me this long to find a good picture of both Yao and Lin with the oopsie in question...)

The Opening Ceremonies cost an estimated 37-38 Million $US and yet the best they could give that little kid was an upside down cheap ass dollar-store flag.

Seriously.

That was the BEST they could do?

For the record the flag looks like this:




not this:



Displaying a flag upside down typically represents a signal of distress...

So, was this done intentionally to show the child's distress at the events of the Earthquake? The horrendous Human Rights Abuses of China? China's occupation of Tibet? or, was this simply a big OOPS!

I have a[nother] Dream...

...that Canada might actually win a couple of these things...

Look, don't get me wrong. I am being VERY supportive to our Olympic Team, but it just seems that, well, if countries like Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Uzbekistan and Vietnam can have medals by now, we should too!

I don't even know where half of these countries are?!?!

Team Canada, I'm still rooting for you...

must... stay... awake...

Between 12:00 am and 3:00 am on Wednesday morning, Montréal cutie-pahtootie, the sexy, wet, yummy, hawtie Alexandre Despatie will be competing at the Olympics...

Save us Alexandre, you're our only hope...

Merde, merde, merde!

MUST... STAY... AWAKE...