Women's Halfpipe - Elizabeth Swaney

[graham418]

So, as I understand it, she has been on the World Cup circuit for several years, and finished in the top 30 in order to qualify for the Olympics. She may have had to pay her way there. Is that any different than a young US racer who has to buy his/her way onto the team? I have read in several threads here about junior racers paying 40k-60k a year for a spot on the team. Regardless, she qualified, and did it according to the rules of the competition. She put in a solid, if somewhat lacklustre performance, so kudos.
I have also thought of the same kind of thing, the only way I am ever going to sail in the Olympics is under the auspices of the Sahara Desert Sailing Team!!

 

[Alexzn]

How to become an Olympian (or "professional athlete") in two relatively easy steps-

Step 1) pick a sport with expensive equipment/ cost of participation that bars entry by most people. If the sport doesn't pay well for pros, even better.

Step 2) be female

The end.

Mike, get a grip. Your post is pretty offensive to anyone who has a ski racing daughter (or a daughter in any sport). FYI, there is not a single cheap sport if you do it at a serious level. Just travel to competitions nails you pretty hard. And you really picked a bad example. Half pipe is not equestrian, a pair of used park skis and a season pass to a mountain with a park is still much cheaper than buying a competition horse.

 

[fatbob]

Coming from a country where as a kid Wintersports = Torvil + Dean as far as media coverage went I think there is a lot to be grateful for outlier competitors in the spirit of Eddie the Eagle. Now everyone loved him except the serious British competitors, particularly the Bell brothers who felt they didn't get the coverage they deserved. And it also killed participation for future generations of British athletes by stuffed suits who didn't want the embrassment of another plucky privateer like Edwards e.g. Emily Sarsfield who was denied an entry by the BOC for skiercross in 2014 despite a ranking inside top 32, a place offered by the FIS and recent results heavily hampered by injury.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

one of my favorite Olympic moments was watching the final skier come down the GS at Innsbruck, only 52 of 100 managed both runs
had been a long time since anyone had made the bottom. WELL off the pace and picking his turns carefully he eventually did.
he was then hoisted onto shoulders of other competitors and paraded around the finish corral to as big cheers as the rest.
pretty sure he was a US student that happened to be studying in the tropical country he was representing .
still makes me smile.

 

[pchewn]

Here's another athlete (Asa Miller) from my local hill who is racing for the Philippines. Somewhat similar, I'm not sure he's even ever been to the Philippines and is one of two athletes at the Olympics from Philippines. He finished 70th out of 110 skiers (only 75 skiers had times for both runs). I admire his work and effort, but I have mixed feelings about latching onto a country just because it is an easier path to the Olympics....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Miller

https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang...ng/results-men-s-giant-slalom-fnl-000200-.htm

 

[hbear]

One of the Canadian girls said basically good for her. So I don't know there is much animosity towards her..but that's coming from someone who made it to the games..dunno what others who are obviously much better but couldn't make it because the rules feel about it..

You bet. But what did you expect she would actually say about it on record?

Makes perfect sense for her to give the PC answer.

 

[Ohioskier]

Why is it right to claim a country you never lived in just to go to Olympics?

If you can’t make team in Home country that’s on you. There are too many Americans skiing and participating for other countries. It’s ridiculous. Maybe if you join a foreign team for sport your should be required to move there for a decade.

 

[pchewn]

Why is it right to claim a country you never lived in just to go to Olympics?

If you can’t make team in Home country that’s on you. There are too many Americans skiing and participating for other countries. It’s ridiculous. Maybe if you join a foreign team for sport your should be required to move there for a decade.

I think if you join a foreign team for sport you should give up your USA citizenship.

In the same way that I think if you come to the USA from Mexico and become US citizen, you should NOT be rooting for the Mexico national team when it plays the US national team (soccer).

 

[Snowfan]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/liz-swaney-worst-olympian-actually-might-best-012747577.html

She sounds like an interesting and kind person. I say good for her.

 

[hbear]

Interesting certainly, perhaps even one of those people we’d be lucky to know and cross paths with.

I don’t believe any (or the ones I remember reading) of the comments here are directed to her personally. Just about the process in which she “got there”.

 

[Primoz]

Remember, a snowboarder who started 26th just won GOLD in the SuperG. Please explain exactly where the line is drawn.

Please don't even try to mix these two things. That "snowboarder who just happened to won gold" was running WC races all season long, and started racing skiing WC in 2016. Her WC results from this year are Soelden GS DNQ1, Lake Louise DH 13, LL DH 7, LL SG DNF1, St. Moritz SG 44, Bad Kleinkircheim SG 24, Bad Kleinkircheim DH 17. Yes not really good enough to expect gold on Olympics, but still in completely other league then someone who came to Korea because she bought right passport and pretty much manipulated her qualifications norm. Exactly same thing as for example Vanessa Mae in Sochi, except that in later it really was cheating, with this "skier" it was just "smart picking of the races". But result is same... someone who doesn't have anything to do on Olympics was there purely because of money.

 

[Ohioskier]

@pchewn I agree completely.

@Philpug my father in law was born in Ukraine. My wife and I were born in Cincinnati, Ohio. If my children want to compete in olympics should they be American athletes or Ukraine?

I don’t have issue with snowboarder that skies for her own country that qualified for the games. I do have issue with the many American born athletes that couldn’t cut it for American team and chose to go to some little country without competition to qualify. There are many in this years games that did that.

 

[fatbob]

I think if you join a foreign team for sport you should give up your USA citizenship.

In the same way that I think if you come to the USA from Mexico and become US citizen, you should NOT be rooting for the Mexico national team when it plays the US national team (soccer).

Ah the Tebbit test. Good luck with that. & try it on Aussies and Kiwis first to see how they feel about giving up their cricket team or the All Blacks.

 

[Lauren]

I don’t have issue with snowboarder that skies for her own country that qualified for the games. I do have issue with the many American born athletes that couldn’t cut it for American team and chose to go to some little country without competition to qualify. There are many in this years games that did that.

Agreed, but at the same time I understand why they do it. I was curious on how often this happens and what the rules are; so naturally I took to google. Found an article about a Chinese table tennis player that was 3rd in the world, however, places 1 and 2 also belonged to Chinese men, and they could only qualify 2. So he went on to become a citizen in another country (don’t recall which one), to be able to compete in the games.

Just read another one that says in Rio, 44 of the 172 table tennis players were Chinese-born, 6 played for China.

Having figure skating on in the background the other night, I noticed one gentleman as part of a pair skating for South Korea. I’ll admit, I stereotyped him...he did not look Korean. Sure enough I ran into an article stating he was American, and became a citizen of South Korea (which apparently is no easy feat). His partner also American but with South Korean ties.

It makes me wonder, are any of these situations really different from Elizabeth, or did she just expose the loophole that so many have used in the past. She’s the first that didn’t blend in with the crowd. I’d even say her scheme is more benign than someone winning a medal by using this loophole.

 

[Ohioskier]

@elemmac they are all the same and I’m sure there are more like it. There’s a kid from Cincinnati that moved to Puerto Rico at 10 that’s skiing for Puerto Rico now. How he moved at 10 then at 13 he decides he would like to try skiing and his dad puts him in the Vail racing program. So he’s lived in America for 14 years. I don’t care what story is if your country has better players and you don’t make it tough. Beat them and get the spot. If you wanna move then go don’t look back and relocate. I bet the half pipe snowboard girl doesn’t take her Harvard masters degree to Hungary for employment.

 

[jmeb]

Please don't even try to mix these two things. That "snowboarder who just happened to won gold" was running WC races all season long, and started racing skiing WC in 2016. Her WC results from this year are Soelden GS DNQ1, Lake Louise DH 13, LL DH 7, LL SG DNF1, St. Moritz SG 44, Bad Kleinkircheim SG 24, Bad Kleinkircheim DH 17. Yes not really good enough to expect gold on Olympics, but still in completely other league then someone who came to Korea because she bought right passport and pretty much manipulated her qualifications norm. Exactly same thing as for example Vanessa Mae in Sochi, except that in later it really was cheating, with this "skier" it was just "smart picking of the races". But result is same... someone who doesn't have anything to do on Olympics was there purely because of money.

 

[Lauren]

LA Times reported: "Elizabeth Swaney once ran for governor of California but lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also once tried out to be an Oakland Raiders cheerleader and attempted to reach the Olympics as skeleton racer for Venezuela."

I gotta say, if this is true; this girl has some guts and a "go get it" attitude, which is hard to hate.

 

[jonc]

@elemmac they are all the same and I’m sure there are more like it. There’s a kid from Cincinnati that moved to Puerto Rico at 10 that’s skiing for Puerto Rico now. How he moved at 10 then at 13 he decides he would like to try skiing and his dad puts him in the Vail racing program. So he’s lived in America for 14 years. I don’t care what story is if your country has better players and you don’t make it tough. Beat them and get the spot. If you wanna move then go don’t look back and relocate. I bet the half pipe snowboard girl doesn’t take her Harvard masters degree to Hungary for employment.

Why isn’t the athlete from Puerto Rico competing for USA? Shouldn’t they already fall under USOC?

 

[jonc]

I don’t have issue with snowboarder that skies for her own country that qualified for the games. I do have issue with the many American born athletes that couldn’t cut it for American team and chose to go to some little country without competition to qualify. There are many in this years games that did that.

Many athletes do this at EVERY olympics. I think part of the reason is each country decides whether the athlete qualifies to compete for their country. There is variation from country to country so that somebody with more distant ties may be able to compete in some places but not others.

What about all the international athletes that live and train full time here? Some may be legitimately born and raised in their country but now live here to train and compete. This also happens in reverse some of our athletes live and train abroad.

 

[Ohioskier]

LA Times reported: "Elizabeth Swaney once ran for governor of California but lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also once tried out to be an Oakland Raiders cheerleader and attempted to reach the Olympics as skeleton racer for Venezuela."

I gotta say, if this is true; this girl has some guts and a "go get it" attitude, which is hard to hate.

Sure but when did she live in Hungary or Venezuela?