It wasn’t exactly pretty. But Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the self-taught skier from Ghana known as the “Snow Leopard,” has achieved his goal of racing in the Winter Olympics. He made two cleans trips in the slalom Saturday in a combined 2 minutes, 22.60 seconds, 43.28 seconds behind winner Giuliano Razzoli, but he wasn’t last. He was almost a half-minute faster than Erjon Tola of Albania. As the West African nation’s first Winter Olympian came into view at the bottom of the hill, spectators chanted “Snow Leopard! Snow Leopard!” Later, he signed autographs and posed for pictures. Nkrumah-Acheampong has made friends with Ted Ligety, who went to Ghana in 2006 to promote skiing. “We did some grass skiing,” Ligety said. “We took the grass skis out on a golf course, down a fairway and skied around. It was pretty fun.”
The Associated Press
