Ghanainan wants to inspire Africans

Pyeongchang – Taking part in the Pyeongchang Games is not the end goal for Ghana’s first skeleton racer Akwasi Frimpong (right) – he wants to set the foundations for more Winter Olympians from Africa.

A converted track athlete who also tried bobsleigh, Frimpong’s switch to skeleton – and to representing the country of his birth – has opened the door to an Olympic debut.

He is the first West African to compete in skeleton, the hair-raising, head-first sliding sport where competitors power down an icy track with their chins just centimetres off the ice.

He may be making history simply by being in Pyeongchang but Frimpong said his true target is Beijing in four years time.

“My goal was always 2022 but with my hard work and support of family and sponsors I thought I would gear up for 2018,” the 32-year-old Frimpong said at the weekend.

“But I’m focused a lot on 2022 because my goal is to win a medal for Africa and that would be a real big breakthrough.”

A record eight African nations are competing in South Korea with 12 athletes in action.

Having grown up in the Netherlands after his family moved there from Ghana, Frimpong won a scholarship to Utah Valley University in the United States.

The sprinter was unable to make the Dutch 2012 Olympic team, and switched to bobsleigh but missed out on a place in their squad for Sochi in 2014.

He then took a break from the sport but was persuaded to try skeleton by British coach Nicola Minichiello who had worked with him on the Netherlands bobsleigh team.

“I gave it a try and I just loved it,” he said. – Reuters