Sure, Bode won his first gold, and the all the drama surrounding Lindsey Vonn -- the Riesch-Vonn friendship/rivalry, the Vonn-Mancuso Twitter war -- was certainly televisual. But underneath that sheen were some real stories of true triumph, of no-hope Olympians coming out of the woodwork and onto the world's stage, heads held high.
A couple of weeks back, we told you about Ghana's Snow Leopard: Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong taught himself to ski at a snow dome six years ago and this year became his home country's first (and only) competitor at the 2010 Olympics. And we have to say, he acquitted himself well -- even managing to outdo Bode Miller in the men's slalom last Saturday.
While Miller failed to finish, Nkrumah-Acheampong skied the course in 1:09.08 -- a thick 21 seconds behind the leader, but not, perhaps surprisingly, in last place. That honor went to Albanian Erjon Tola, who, having missed a gate on his first run, stopped his run, sidestepped back up to the gate, then continued his run, crossing the finish line with fist-pump.
"I was watching the course and I said, 'No, I want to finish it,'" Tola told reporters at the line. "That's why I came back and finished, because this is the Olympics."
Photo courtesy of Facebook/Kwame's Army
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