On turned skeleton Olympian Akwasi Frimpong into the graphic-novel hero Black Ice

Tell how Frimpong became the first skeleton athlete from Africa to win an elite race — through citizenship struggles, injury and a switch from sprinting to skeleton — as a role model for younger generations.

A ten-minute film mixing live action with graphic-novel-style animation by Brett McManus, illustrated by Dean Mortensen, with Phantom comics as the style reference and children as narrators instead of a voice-of-god; developed over six months.

Released in January 2022. Frimpong then missed Beijing after a positive Covid test ended his qualifying — making the film's resilience theme painfully literal, with 2026 his next shot.

For Swiss sportswear brand On, writer-director Richard Bullock made a ten-minute film about Akwasi Frimpong, the Ghanaian-Dutch skeleton athlete and Olympian whose career runs through citizenship struggles, injury and a change of sport from sprinting to skeleton, and who became the first skeleton athlete from Africa to win an elite race.

Unusually, the project began as a graphic novel rather than a script: Bullock typed out Frimpong's full life story in graphic-novel style and had his storyboard artist Dean Mortensen draw it, free from film constraints. The animation turns Frimpong into a superhero named Black Ice — against Bullock's usual philosophy of never portraying athletes as superheroes, justified because 'the key difference between him and superheroes is he is actually real. His superpower is resilience.'

The style cites the original Phantom comics — the first masked skin-tight hero — mirroring Frimpong's real-life practice of painting his story on his suit and helmet. And instead of a voice-of-god narrator, the children Frimpong is meant to inspire read the novel aloud. The film was developed over six months as a precursor to the Beijing Winter Olympics, which Frimpong ultimately missed after a positive Covid test ended his qualifying.

Building the graphic novel before the script freed the story from film conventions and gave the animation a real source text.

Kids as narrators make aspiration the plot: they read Frimpong into their own story rather than being told about his.

The Phantom reference welds the animation style to Frimpong's own suit-and-mask design language.

Adapt the medium to the story's own folklore: a hero who paints his story on his helmet belongs in a graphic novel, narrated by his heirs.

The film released in January 2022, days before the Beijing Games; Frimpong's positive Covid test had already ended his qualifying hopes, pushing his Olympic return to 2026.