“Snow for me is a curious thing, it represents something special for
me as a pathway for my dream to compete at the Winter Olympics,” says
Nkrumah-Acheamphong, who after being born in Glasgow, England, returned to his family’s country of Ghana to spend his formative years in the
snowless country. “It has truly given me a freedom to express myself in a
new and different way.”
He was first introduced to skiing at the Milton Keynes Snow Centre, an
indoor facility on the outskirts of London. He quickly took to the sport and
began racing after realizing it gave him a “massive buzz.”
“Well, of course, when I started no one believed I would manage to qualify
for an Olympic Games in such a short space of time,” he says. “Now I want
to perform respectably and beat some of the smaller team racers. I am
very proud of my heritage and being a role model for other Africans and
Ghanaians to follow their dream. With my small resources I have already
achieved the impossible so now it remains to be seen with proper funding,
coaching and support how fast can I go.”
The Jamaican One-Man Ski Team
Twenty-two years after the Jamaican bobsled team competed in Calgary,
inspiring the Disney film “Cool Runnings,” Canada is hosting the Games
again and a new Jamaican athlete is ready to challenge perceptions of his country. Ski cross racer Errol Kerr is the Jamaican Ski Team. A dual citizen and former member of the U.S. Ski Team, Kerr is the son of an American mother and a Jamaican father. “It’s the land of my father, it’s in my DNA,” says Kerr. “It’s who I am, what I am, and Jamaica is me.” Kerr, who grew up racing in Truck-
ee, Calif., and still lives and trains
there, spends two months a year in his father’s home country. Some
of the island’s residents are already calling him the Usain Bolt (champion
sprinter) of skiing, while others aren’t sure what to make of the sport.
