- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Worst Skier at Olympics: US Woman Games the System to Sneak Into Games

© AP Photo / Gregory Bull Elizabeth Marian Swaney, of Hungary, runs the course during women's halfpipe qualifying at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.
Elizabeth Marian Swaney, of Hungary, runs the course during women's halfpipe qualifying at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
American skier Elizabeth Swaney, who represented Hungary in the women’s free ski halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, is now under fire for having allegedly scammed her way into the Games.

Swaney, 33, left the audience speechless with her less-than-mediocre performance on Monday when she demonstrated skills that don't come close to matching what people expect to see from a world-class Olympic athlete at Pyeongchang.

Halfpipe skiing is considered to be a dangerous sport in which competitors normally perform a series of spectacular tricks while going down the pipe and are evaluated by judges, but Swaney's run featured zero tricks. She did nothing — no triple corks, no tail grabs — as she lazily rode up the halfpipe walls and back down again.

After a video of her performance went viral, the international community started to wonder how the woman managed to get into the Olympics in the first place.

​The answer is simple: there are loopholes in the system allowing pretty much anyone to qualify for a spot at the Games — except for Russian athletes, of course, many of whom couldn't participate in the major sports event even after being fully acquitted by The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Ilya Burov (Russia) at aerials competitions among men at the XXIII winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang - Sputnik International
Russian Freestyle Skier Wins Bronze in Men's Aerials at Pyeongchang Olympics
Swaney, who has a graduate degree from Harvard and once ran against Arnold Schwarzenegger in the race to be governor of California, only picked up skiing in her mid 20s. She even attempted to raise money in support of her sports career through crowdfunding, but without much success.

Knowing that there was no chance for her to make it into the US team, Swaney used her grandparents' heritage to claim Hungarian lineage and became the first person to represent Hungary in skiing. She reportedly earned a spot in Hungary's Olympic delegation by technically fitting a requirement of minimum number of top 30 finishes.

READ MORE: US Journalist Suggests IOC Should Ban Russian Hockey Player

Swaney traveled the world to participate in international championships where there were rarely 30 entrants.

"She went to every world cup, where there were only 24, 25, or 28 women," FIS halfpipe and slopestyle judge Steele Spence told the Denver Post. "She would compete in them consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last."

​If Swaney had crashed at three or four of those world cups, she would have not accumulated enough points to qualify for the Olympics, according to Philippe Belanger, the head judge for freeskiing competitions at Pyeongchang. But it's hard to fall off your skis when you perform no tricks.

It seems, however, that Swaney herself is proud of her achievement.

READ MORE: Russian Figure Skater Reveals Doping Officers Disrupt Numerous Trainings

"I want to inspire others in Hungary and the world to become involved in freestyle skiing," she said, as cited by Independent. "Maybe, perhaps, I'm the bridge to those who want to get started in the life of freestyle skiing and I want to show people that, yeah, it's possible to get involved in freestyle skiing through a variety of backgrounds."

The newly-minted Olympic athlete's ingenuity received mixed responses, but mostly people have taken to social media to condemn her as an unfair contestant, saying that Swaney's case discredits the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic movement in general.

​​​Because of Swaney, athletes that were better qualified and ranked higher were not able to compete. People critical of Swaney's attendance say regulations have to be changed to close the loophole that helped her get in.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала