Olympic Heartbreak For Philip Boit

Three time Olympian Philip Boit had hoped to close out his Olympic cross country skiing career in Vancouver. Unfortunately he fell a heartbreaking two points shy of making it happen.

Philip Boit is the first Kenyan to compete in the winter Olympics and is the 38 year old nephew of Kenyan running legend and Olympian Mike Boit. Mike Boit was the 800m bronze medalist at the 1972 Munich Games.

Boit like his uncle was a middle distance runner but switched to cross country skiing and began training in Finland. In 1996 Nike began sponsoring him and he qualified for the lone 1998 Nagano Olympic spot available to Kenya for the 10k classic field.

He garnered international attention as the first Kenyan winter games athlete but finished 92nd and last in the 10K classic.

Gold medalist Bjorn Daehlie of Norway delayed his medal ceremony in order to greet Boit at the finish line with a hug. Boit was so moved by the gesture he named one of his sons Daehlie after him.

Nike dropped their sponsorship after the 1999 Nordic World Championships, but Boit continued to compete. He did dry training for two years in Kenya and qualified for the 2002 Salt Lake Games. His results were better in these games, finishing 64th in the sprint race in front of three other competitors and retired when the Games concluded.

The retirement was short lived and once again Boit put on his cross country skis to compete in the 2006 Torino Games. He once again finished 92nd in the 15k class race, but ahead of five other competitors.

He stated during a 2006 interview that Vancouver would be his last Olympics. But in the run up to Vancouver the International Ski Federation or FIS decided to tighten the qualifying standard from 500 points for the 15k sprint race to 300.

Boit did his best to make the new FIS standard. He had to battle visa restrictions, long expensive travel from his Finnish training area back home to Kenya, broken poles, drastic acclimatization, and illness but still managed to bring his FIS point rating down from 526 to just two points shy of the new standard.

But it wasn't good enough.

The Kenyan National Olympic Committee filed an appeal on his behalf with the FIS and the International Olympic Committee. FIS rules allow them to potentially draw athletes who have fallen outside of the qualifying standard when the quota of 310 athletes has not been met, but it was denied.

Boit will consider closing out his cross country skiing at the Nordic world championship, but it's a heartbreaking end to the Olympic career of a pioneering athlete.

Ghana's Snow Leopard Hopes To Take A Bite Out of The Olympic Competition

I am a big fan of the Olympic games, be it winter or summer variety.

One of the things about the nature of the winter Olympics is that you don't see many athletes of African descent competing in them very often.

In Calgary there were the Jamaican bobsledders in 1988 who were immortalized in the movie Cool Runnings and competed at Albertville in 1992. There was Kenyan cross country skier and three time Olympian Philip Boit competing in the 10K event at Nagano in 1998, in Salt Lake in 2002 and in Turin in 2006. Boit fell just two points short of the ISF qualifying standard of 300 points in order to compete in his fourth winter games.

In Vancouver, say hello to the Snow Leopard, aka Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong of Ghana.

He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but as a baby moved with his parents to his homeland. He returned to the UK in 2000 to attend college and while working at Milton Keynes he took a run down a 170 meter indoor ski slope that changed his life and got him hooked on the sport.

Since then Aceampong has made the remarkable self-financed leap from that indoor run to the World Cup ski circuit. He's been the only continental African on the World Cup tour since 2005 and barely missed qualifying for the 2006 Turin Games downhill race.

By March 2009 he'd reached his goal of qualifying for the Vancouver Games by getting his International Ski Federation rating down from over 1000 to the ISF qualifying standard of less than 140.

Qualifying was only the beginning. In addition to sticking to his training regimen, he had to do all the paperwork required to be recognized and registered by the Ghana Olympic Committee.

It wasn't easy for the Snow Leopard and there were some trying times along the way. Being self financed on the World Cup circuit meant there were many competitions in which he slept in his freezing cold van overnight.

When the men's giant slalom competition gets underway at Whistler on February 21, he will become the first person ever from Ghana to compete in the Winter Games. It's an even more remarkable feat considering the 34 year old has only been skiing for six years.

Aceampong is not only chasing Olympic gold in the giant slalom and slalom, he has another dream he's working hard to fulfill.

"As well as doing my best at the Olympics, I want to make an impact that leaves a legacy for future generations that will one day see the Ghana ski team as a serious competitor on the international stage."

Shani's Drive For Five Is Down To Four

Was disappointed to learn that Shani Davis is not going to attempt to match Eric Heiden's feat of winning five Olympic gold medals in speedskating in a single Olympic games.

Davis decided to drop out of the 10,000 meters before the January 17 deadline to submit final entries to the International Skating Federation. His 10,000m slot will be filled by Jonathan Kuck.

Guy Thibault, the high-performance director at U.S. Speedskating stated "I'm sure Shani knew already that doing all five was a big thing. That was a big task to do,'' "He didn't want to close any doors, so he could see how things were going in training, before he decided he needs to cut one.

"I want Shani to be the best at what he does,'' Thibault said. "I would rather him focus on the distances he can do something in, instead of getting silver and skating everything.

Even though he's no longer competing in the 10,000m, he's still going to be a busy man in Vancouver. As the reining world champion in the 1000 and 1500 meters he's a favorite to win gold in the 1000 and 1500 and is considered an outside medal contender in the 500 and 5000.

And Shani's busy week in Vancouver starts Saturday with the 5000m.

Happy 50th Birthday Flo Jo

It's hard to believe she's been gone from us for eleven years, but today would have been Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner's 50th birthday. She was born in this date in south Los Angeles in 1959

Back in the day I loved me some Flo Jo.

She was known not only for her flashy form-fitting bodysuits and six-inch fingernails, but had world-record speed. The 100m record she set back in 1988 still hasn't been threatened by the current crop of female sprinters.

Florence Griffith Joyner was a triple gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics who captivated the world with her blistering speed, glamorous looks and flamboyant style.

She still holds the world records in the 100m and 200m dashes. She set the 100m mark of 10.49 seconds during the quarter finals of the 1988 US Olympic trials at Indianapolis.


At Seoul, she won the 100m gold medal in a wind-aided 10.54 seconds and won her 200m gold medal in a world record time of 21.34 seconds.

Because she had an unbelievable competitive year, as usual any sistah who excels in the international sports world is accused of cheating. In Flo Jo's case, because of her curvy and muscular build, she was dogged by accusations of steroid use even though she never failed a drug test.

She retired after the Seoul Games to pursue other interests, and died unexpectedly of heart failure at age thirty-eight on September 21, 1998.

Athletes like her only come along once in a generation. She is definitely missed by those of us who loved to watch her run and look good blowing away her competition at the same time.

Rest in peace, sis.

What's Up With Shani Davis?

For those of you who weren't paying attention during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy there was a brother speedskater from Chicago who was kicking butt, taking names, and making history as he glided around the track.

Shani Davis during those 2006 Winter Olympics became the first African American to win a gold medal at an individual event and became the first African American male to win a gold when he won the 1000-meter speedskating event in Torino.

The 2006 gold medalist is gearing up for the upcoming 2010 Games in Vancouver after spending a very productive fall on the World Cup speedskating circuit.

He collected nine gold medals overall, is the world champion at 1000 and 1500 meters and set a world record Friday in the 1500 meters at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, UT with a time of 1 minute, 6.67 seconds.

In addition to Davis clinching spots on the USA men's speedskating team in at least four events from 500 to 5000 meters, he has established himself as a multiple gold medal contender for the Vancouver Games.

He must decide by Christmas Eve whether he wishes to participate each one of those events plus the team pursuit event or just focus on his best events, the 1000 and 1500 meters and the team pursuit.

If he does go for it, it gives him the chance to potentially match Eric Heiden's five gold medal winning performance at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Games

But despite such heady talk, Davis still isn't taking anything for granted.

“I never like to count my chickens before they hatch from the eggs,” he said. “I'm going to continue thinking I'm the underdog and keep on training like I'm the underdog so when the time comes, I'm more than ready to take advantage of what's ahead.”

And it's going to be fun watching the Vancouver Games speedskating competition to see if he does.