New York ¨C Trailblazing Ghanaian skeleton athlete Akwasi Frimpong hopes to open doors for more Africans in winter sports, as he eyes one last trip to the Olympics next year before calling time on his career.

The 39-year-old broke barriers in 2018 when he and Nigerian Simidele Adeagbo became the first African skeleton racers to compete at an Olympics, and he kicks off his fifth world championships in Lake Placid on Thursday.

¡°I don¡¯t want to be the first and the last,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m doing everything that I can to push myself for one more Olympic Games, to continue that narrative, and with the hope that others are listening and watching and that we don¡¯t close that door when I¡¯m done.¡±

He reached the 2018 Winter Games thanks in part to a continental quota program. That system was not in place four years later, and he missed qualifying after contracting COVID-19 in the runup to the Beijing Winter Olympics.

While he has a good chance of qualifying based on his ranking for the Milano Cortina Games next year, he fears that without a continental quota program in the future, other African athletes could be discouraged from even attempting the sport.

¡°I¡¯ve come in at a time in my life right now where it¡¯s all about the next generation, and I¡¯m doing everything that I can to lay a path out there,¡± said Frimpong, who in 2020 became the first skeleton athlete from Africa to win an elite race.

¡°It¡¯s going to be really tough for us to keep Africa in the sport. And that¡¯s something that I¡¯m very sad about.¡±

Frimpong hopes to improve upon his best world championships result of 28th, which came last year, despite missing the first half of the season while recovering from foot surgery. He plans to retire after the 2026 Games.

He put up a handful of solid results over the last two months, including an 11th-place finish at the North American Cup in Park City in January.

¡°I feel like I¡¯ve done decent, but I know I can do much better,¡± he said, estimating that he was at around 80-85% strength. ¡°I¡¯m not quite there where I wanted to be at. But it¡¯s important to be patient.¡±