You know you’ve got a big challenge ahead of you when you are a competitive downhill skier from a country that doesn’t have snow. Just ask Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, an alpine racer and Ghana’s first Winter Olympic athlete.

After all, he only began skiing approximately six years ago. As a further challenge, until Feb. 9, he wasn’t even sure if he and his support team would be able to find lodgings for the races in Whistler.

That’s the date that Maureen Baird and David Lunny confirmed that Nkrumah-Acheampong and the 11-member Ghanaian delegation, including the athlete’s family, would be staying at the Drumkeeran House, a small, five-star private resort on Ivey Lake Road near Pemberton.

David and Maureen offered the use of their lodge after reading the “SOS accommodation in Whistler” post on the team’s website.

“Kwame and his team had no hesitation in warmly accepting our offer,” Lunny said in a statement issued by Tourism Pemberton. “Kwame considers that what has come about was something that was meant to be.”

“We are thrilled that Pemberton will be host to these very special visitors,” said Tracey Rozsypalek, Tourism Pemberton chair. “We look forward to welcoming them to our community and including them in our Olympic festivities.”

Tourism Pemberton officials said they hoped that during their stay, Kwame and his team will engage in community activities, speaking to local students and attending some of Pemberton’s Games-time Winterfest events.

As for the competitions, Nkrumah-Acheampong said in an interview on Friday (Feb. 12) that while he doesn’t expect to be in the medals, he doesn’t consider himself an underdog.

“I see myself as a middle dog because I’ve had to work extremely hard to get to where I am at the moment,” he said. “I didn’t just get a wild card or just pop up from somewhere. It’s taken a lot of hard work and it’s still hard work at the moment.”

Nkrumah-Acheampong’s journey to the Winter Olympics began just six short years ago, while he was studying in England.

“I was studying… so I needed to get a couple of jobs, and working in a ski resort (at Xscape in England) was just one of those jobs,” he said.

At Xscape, an indoor ski facility, Nkrumah-Acheampong was offered the opportunity to learn how to ski, and discovered that racing gave him “a buzz.” From there he travelled to France, where he experienced his first opportunity to ski on real snow.

Over the years, Nkrumah-Acheampong has received the nickname of “The Snow Leopard,” so designated because an article once compared the endangered animal to the concept of endangered skiers in Africa. The name has developed into almost a second identity for Nkrumah-Acheampong, complete with a race suit that has black spots set onto a silver background.

Unlike other professional alpine racers who travel to the southern hemisphere once the snow starts to melt in March, Nkrumah-Acheampong only trains from December to March, because his funding relies entirely on individual or corporate sponsorship. This season, he had only a month of training before arriving on Vancouver Island, and then had only four days on Mount Washington before travelling to Vancouver.

Nkrumah-Acheampong is realistic about where he will place in his two races.

On Sunday (Feb. 21), he is scheduled to compete in the giant slalom, as will his ski idol Bode Miller from the United States. Both will also compete in the slalom on Saturday, Feb. 27.

“I’ll be competing on the same slope, but maybe not against him,” he said. “He is way ahead of me.”

Although Nkrumah-Acheampong knows he and Miller won’t be in the same category, he is no less passionate about winning. He just aims to win on a smaller scale.

“I have to pick my fights carefully,” he said. “It’s more picking on another small nation than picking on the American ski team which is not possible to touch.”

While Nkrumah-Acheampong wouldn’t provide the nationalities of the other skiers he is hoping to beat, he did state that if he is able to beat three other teams, his primary sponsor will donate 9,000 pounds sterling to any of Nkrumah-Acheampong’s three chosen charities.

Now that Nkrumah-Acheampong is finally settled in, all he has to do is practice, and with his speed being clocked at 90 km/h, he is fairly confident he won’t be the slowest skier in both his races.

“I can ski, I can ski race. I’m not that slow,” he said modestly.