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Raise Your Game: You are the first person from Ghana to qualify for the Winter Olympics. How does that make you feel?

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong: I feel very proud to have achieved the qualification and I feel I am setting a piece of history on my own. It has been a tough journey, but I'm glad all the hard work has paid off.

RYG: You took an unlikely path to the Olympics. How did it all start?

KNA: I have always had a keen interest in sport - taking part in athletics and football. I also represented Ghana at the West African Student Games in tennis. I returned to the UK to study for my master's degree and got a job as a receptionist at an indoor ski centre. In my spare time I had a go at skiing and found that I wasn't too bad at it. So I decided to try and see if I could practice on a real ski slope on a mountain and the dream started from there.

RYG: You were unsuccessful in qualifying for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games, so what kept you going?

KNA: What kept me going was proving to people that it was possible to take up a sport and be able to qualify for a competition like the Olympics. I also wanted to silence some of my critics. I personally wanted to be at the Olympics and I owed it to my family to make it happen because they have always supported me.

RYG: As a man with a family it must be difficult combining family life with your intense training. How do you manage your time so effectively?

KNA: It's extremely difficult. I am not supported by the Ghana government which means I have to find my own funding. So in the summer I am mostly working and dry land training in the UK, as well as looking after my family. In the winter my wife and I have to juggle things. It's really difficult managing everything, but it has all come together.

RYG: What are the rewards of remaining determined and focused on achieving your goal?

KNA: First of all, it is knowing that you've done it! I always believed that I would do it and now I have. When you watch the Olympics and you see the big smiles on the athletes faces, the atmosphere, it's just great knowing that you are going to be part of it.

Secondly, for people to recognise that I have done something different, especially the people from Ghana. I want to open the eyes of young people in Ghana and prove that there are opportunities other than football and boxing. I think the Olympics will open up doors in other parts of my life, for example working and meeting people. I could only have ever dreamed of meeting people that I have watched on TV.

RYG: I understand you've launched a campaign in Ghana to encourage young people to take up the sport. Tell me a little bit about that?

KNA: In 2006 I went to Ghana with the American Olympic medallist slalom skier, Ted Ligety, to educate young people about skiing. We taught them about the skills needed for skiing, some fitness tests and we did a bit of grass skiing. The idea was to bring some of these young people over to Europe to give them a taste of what skiing is like.

I have identified terrain in Ghana that would be suitable for either a grass ski slope or an artificial ski slope. So I am currently in the process of putting all the necessary paperwork together and starting to seek donations towards making this happen. I envisage that this facility will be free so that young people in Ghana can come and have a go at skiing. Then, if it interests them and they are good, we can take them on as athletes and train them.

RYG: Why is it important for young people from Ghana and young people in general to get involved in sport?

KNA: Sport can open doors into other aspects of your life in terms of business, social relationships and meeting people. I think the biggest thing is that sport is fun and young people deserve to have some fun. What better way to enjoy life than through sport.

RYG: What lessons for life can we learn through skiing?

KNA: With sport, and particularly skiing, it's proving to yourself that you are stronger than you think. Human beings are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. Some people will sit on the couch and say to themselves 'I could never do that'. Give it a go! You're never going to know if you can do something until you try it. Sport gives you the opportunity to find your limits and to see how far you can go.

RYG: What are your hopes for the future?

KNA: I am hoping to train as hard as I can for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and to perform well. My long term goal is that I would love to see an athlete from the Ghana Ski Team coming in the top 20 World rankings in skiing, which will hopefully happen with continual development and investment.