Akwasi Frimpong Writes: Carrying the flag for my country

February 9, 2018, was the day I got to make history for my country Ghana as its first skeleton Olympian and it’s only second winter Olympian. I also represented 30 million people, many of whom had never seen snow in their lives.

The morning of the opening ceremony was exciting. I woke up early and went to breakfast in the Olympic village. The Olympic village cafeteria was full of choices from western food to Korean local dishes and was packed with athletes from all over the world. After breakfast, I went to my room to do Point of View skeleton mind runs with my sliding coach Laurie Bausch, which is laying on my belly and envisioning myself sliding on the course. I also did a weightlifting workout and got a massage from my physical therapist, Michael Davidson. I followed that up with scheduled interviews with our Chef de Mission, Jerry Ahmed Shaib and the Ghana Olympic Committee sponsor and attaché, Kojo Choi with media teams around the globe. 

The Team gathered in the afternoon to choose our outfits to represent Ghana at the opening ceremony later in the evening. First, we chose an all long black warm jacket that covered us from our neck to our ankle because it was going to be -25 Celsius and windy. We quickly changed our minds, however, and chose our down jackets with colourful patterns since we were going to be on TV and wanted every Ghanaian to recognize us. After all, we were there to make our nation proud. 

The next thing we had to do was plan how we were going to enter the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium. Our Chef de Mission, Jerry Ahmed Shaib came up with a great idea. We were going to clap to stay warm and sing “Osee yee, Yee Ayea, Osee Ghana Ohhh, Akwasi Ohhh, Yea Ayea”.

We had fun practising our entrance in our Olympic village on the 11th floor (I wonder if the French team next to us and the Jamaican Olympic team above us could hear our loud clapping and singing). From all over the world people started to post on social media how excited they were to watch team Ghana at the opening ceremony, and we received so many well wishes. It fueled our purpose and motivated us to continue to inspire everyone.

That evening, all athletes, coaches, and officials gathered downstairs at the Olympic village around 6:15 PM local time to get ready to head toward the Olympic stadium. We were lined up by nation to head to the bus that was going to take us to the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, but before that happened, every athlete started taking pictures with each other, and, of course, exchanged pins which is a big tradition at the Olympic Games. The level of camaraderie was unlike anything I had ever seen. The Olympic spirit was felt the first day I stepped in the Olympic village on February 3, 2018, but was even stronger on the evening of the opening ceremony on February 9th.

We as athletes could not stop documenting this special day on our way to the stadium. My physical therapist Michael Davidson was nervous all day. It was big for him as well; he knew me from the Netherlands since I was 18-years-old, we had been through a lot together he was going to watch me make my nation proud and have my Olympic dreams become a reality. 

Buses travelled from two Olympic villages; one from the PyeongChang mountainous region where I was staying and a smaller facility in the nearby beach resort town of Gangneung. The buses arrived safely at the Olympic stadium, where all 2,925 athletes from 92 nations, coaches and team officials gathered. More pictures were taken, and more pins were exchanged. I had so much fun mingling with athletes from so many different countries. This included getting on the picture with American actor, comedian, writer and producer Nicholas Kroll and witnessing the New Zealand Olympic team doing their impressive haka chant before the opening ceremony.