GOC unhappy with Frimpong

The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) has expressed grave disappointment at the posture of Ghana’s skeleton athlete, Akwasi Frimpong, after supporting him at the February PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, saying it smacks of a “high level of ingratitude and self-centredness”.

A reliable source told the Daily Graphic that after the GOC and its sponsors, Payswitch and Cocoa from Ghana, had supported Frimpong by placing him on a scholarship for about eight months prior to the PyeongChang Games, which earned him $650 a month, the athlete had decided to turn his back on the GOC and its sponsors.

It said Frimpong had since refused to acknowledge the assistance offered him by the GOC and its sponsors and even visited the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the Jubilee House without informing these bodies which gave him all the support at the winter Games.

“The GOC and its sponsors, Payswitch and Cocoa from Ghana, financed Frimpong’s entire participation and stay at the winter Olympic Games, including paying for his ticket, that of his coach, physiotherapist, his family, and excess baggage but Frimpong later came to Ghana without acknowledging all that the GOC and its sponsors did for him”, the source stressed.

It added that Frimpong also called on President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House without informing the GOC, the Chef de’Mission, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, the sponsors, Payswitch and Cocoa from Ghana, or members of the federation.

The source, therefore, described the attitude of the skeleton athlete as a “high level of ingratitude and self-centredness”, saying “such behaviour by foreign-based athletes could discourage sponsors and federation heads from supporting other foreign-based athletes in the future”.

It would be recalled that Akwasi Frimpong, a skeleton and Bobsled athlete, solely represented Ghana at the February Winter Olympic Games in PeongChang, South Korea.

Even though he could not win any medal at the Games, Frimpong with the total support of the GOC, its sponsors and the Ghanaian Embassy in Korea marketed Ghana across the globe.

The Daily Graphic also gathered that about a year to the Games, Frimpong called on the GOC to support him in his quest to represent Ghana at the Games. This led to the GOC placing him on the $650, while liaising with Payswitch and Cocoa from Ghana to complement its effort with funds for Frimpong’s participation during the Games in PyeongChang.