The Snow Leopard’s eyes light up. A couple he has never heard of have sent him an email offering the use of their house in British Columbia. It is another step on a road to the Winter Olympics that has been not so much long and winding as pot-holed and unpaved. The Snow Leopard will be the story of these Vancouver Games. He is Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, 35, Ghanaian, a skier and about to break the Olympic mould. And he has done it all by himself.

Skier Noel Baxter has been left out of Great Britain’s squad for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Baxter, 28, brother of ex-skier Alain, competed in the previous two Winter Games, but a dip in form coincided with a cut in his funding this season. Snowboard cross medal hopeful Zoe Gillings is included, along with world women’s bobsleigh champions Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke.

The British Ski and Snowsport Federation is to go into administration after struggling to meet its financial obligations. The BSSF struggled for some time with some athletes having funding cut in the run-up to the Winter Olympics. British skiers and snowboarders will be able to take part but face uncertain futures after the Games in Vancouver.

Lindsey Vonn won the women’s World Cup super-G title with victory on the slopes of St Moritz in Switzerland. The American fended off Austrian Andrea Fischbacher and France’s Marie Marchand-Arvier to take an unassailable lead with two races remaining. Vonn’s nearest super-G title rival, Swiss Fabienne Suter, finished fourth.

With two weeks to go to the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics and the backdrop of a record snowfall as well as the blessing of international ski officials, the finishing touches are being applied over the next 16 days to the Olympic alpine ski racing courses at Whistler Blackcomb.

The 7th edition of ‘La Gorzderette’, described by organisers as, “the truly iciest competition in the world” is underway and will continue to Sunday 31st January 2010 in the valley of Champagny le Haut at La Plagne in France’s Paradiski area.