Well ,
move over Jamaica here comes Ghana ! Ghana’s Nkrumah-Acheampong is competing at the Winter Olympics This Year !
Africa shows up at the Winter Olympics
There is no snow in Africa (with the slight exception of South Africa), and even with the noise about climate change, it will take years for other countries on the continent to witness their children engaged in snowball fighting. But that has not stopped some African countries - six in all, from sending participants to the 2010 Winter Olympics currently taking place in Vancouver, Canada.
Trail blazer Nkrumah-Acheampong was born in Glasgow but was raised in Ghana where he never saw snow in person. In an interview with London’s Daily Telegraph, the father-of-two said: “All I had ever known about skiing was watching a James Bond film, so it really just took off from there.” After moving to London to study in 2002, he got a summer job as a receptionist at Xscape, an indoor real-snow slope in suburban Milton Keynes. “The coaches said I had a natural talent and I’ve never found skiing difficult.” His love for the sport has taken him all the way to the Olympics. The Genesis Nkrumah-Acheampong competed in his first international race in France in February 2005, finishing in 68th and last place, over 30 seconds behind the 67th-place finisher. You could not fault him for not trying, however. He finished with the slowest time in his first 11 races but did so without a single crash-out. In his 12th race, he finally climbed out of last, finishing 74th in a B-level giant slalom race, ahead of seven other racers.
Over the past five years, he has competed in events in places not known for their Alpine skiing venues, such as Iran, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He qualified for Vancouver by collecting 140 points on the International Ski Federation scale during the 2008-09 season and by competing at the 2009 World Championships. The snow leopard The best result by an African came in 2006, when Canadian-born Mathieu Razanakolona, representing Madagascar finished 39th in the men’s giant slalom. While his results may not exceed those of Razanakolana, Nkrumah-Acheampong hopes to change the continent’s view about skiing, when he competes in the slalom and giant slalom.
Closing summary on the Jamaican bobsled team :
The team returned to the Olympics in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, but finished poorly.[3][4] They qualified again for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. There, the Jamaican four sled stunned many of their critics by finishing in 14th place, ahead of the United States, Russia, France and one sled from Italy.[5]
In 2000 the Jamaicans won the gold medal at the World Push Bobsled Championships.
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