My 100th Post: Ghana's snow leopard skis for glory

Rarely do you associate an African with skiing, but Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong wants to enter uncharted territory. As Ghana's first professional skier, he aims to compete next February in the downhill race at the winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Nkrumah-Acheampong, who loves to be referred to as the "snow leopard", was actually born in the Scottish city of Glasgow, but grew up in Ghana's capital, Accra, where the nearest most people get to snow is imagining "cold cotton wool".

"The first time I saw snow was on TV back home in Ghana," Nkrumah-Acheampong told the BBC's Fast Track programme. "Watching skiing then, I loved the way the skiers turned, moved fast in a zigzag manner and I said to myself, 'Some day I'll ski!'" (BBC Sport)

It is my 100th post! Yaaaay! How appropriate to mark this lil milestone with my favourite kind of story about breaching the norm barrier. This article reminds me of the Jamaican bobsled team which completed in the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988, also a movie subject called Cool Runnings.

It shows that one should not be afraid to dream and if that dream leads you to a strange place where the status quo says you do not belong, if you're brave enough to challenge that norm and preset preception or tradition, you've achieve the extraordinary, even if you do not totally suceed. Dare to dream, dare to make it happen!