American “scams” her way into the Olympics: terrible or admirable?

I thought this was going to be about Alexis Pappas?

I get it, she is not an Olympic level halfpipe skier. Not denying that.

However, watch the video of her run. I guarantee over 99% of the world population could not throw on some skis and do exactly what she did.

In fact I guarantee that any normal person who attempted to imitate her supposedly "easy" run would injure themselves.

Don't need to respect her at all, but don't act like anybody could do what she did. This is not the equivalent of joe schmoe running in the Olympic 800.

Trust me I'm not a fan, just injecting some reality into the discussion

The guy who could barely swim was worse.

2014, I had time to follow Winter Olympics a bit. That Olympics there were numerous ladies from the Twin Cities, MN area. Said ladies competed for numerous countries in curling. Many trained on Selby Avenue in Saint Paul. It happens. If you were the tenth best curler in the US and you had European grandparents, would you curl for another country? Most likely.

Methuser wrote:

I get it, she is not an Olympic level halfpipe skier. Not denying that.

However, watch the video of her run. I guarantee over 99% of the world population could not throw on some skis and do exactly what she did.

In fact I guarantee that any normal person who attempted to imitate her supposedly "easy" run would injure themselves.

Don't need to respect her at all, but don't act like anybody could do what she did. This is not the equivalent of joe schmoe running in the Olympic 800.

Trust me I'm not a fan, just injecting some reality into the discussion

It is absolutely the equivalent of a Joe Schmoe running the Olympic 800. Or walking it.

Have you ever been skiing? Do you live someplace where people ski? Where I live there are three local ski mountains and many more mountains not too far of a drive away. You can go to any of those mountains any day of the week right now and see a ton of skiers who can easily do what she did. There are endless kids - kids - doing far more impressive jumps (actual jumps of which she did none) who have no hope of ever making the Olympics. You don’t know what you are talking about.

This stuff happens all the time. David Torrence went to Peru. Nobody threw a fit.

Every Olympics there’s 11.5 second 100 guys who make it and 2:20 800 women who make it. They will forever be olympians.

Keep the envy and jealousy strong.

Methuser wrote:

However, watch the video of her run. I guarantee over 99% of the world population could not throw on some skis and do exactly what she did.

Throw on skis my ass - she has been training 8 years for this! Shamefully bad.

Competitive Ducker wrote:

I thought this was going to be about Alexis Pappas?

My thoughts exactly.

A scam is a dishonest scheme or fraud. She did neither. She also didn't swindle, cheat, deceive, trick, dupe, hoodwink, or double-cross anybody. She fairly competed in all the events and earned a rank set forth by certain rules and regulations. No skier ranked higher was either eligible or able to take their place at the competition. If she didn't take her rightful spot, it would have went to the next ranked skier behind her.

Scam Life wrote:

Competitive Ducker wrote:

I thought this was going to be about Alexis Pappas?

My thoughts exactly.

Lol +1

Another example of why it is a Scam. Pappas will always refer to herself as an Olympian. Never as an Olympian representing Greece.

She will be talking to a group of Americans which makes it appear that she is a USA Olympian. This is intentional and deceiving as hell.

I'm actually more amazed at the first paragraph of the article:

When you tune into the Olympics, you usually expect to catch a glimpse of some of the most elite athletes that the world has to offer, even if it's in some pretty bizarre sports that you didn't even know existed. (Looking at you, curling and biathlon.)

Really? Curling is a bizarre sport that a sportswriter for CBS didn't know existed? Curling is huge in many, many countries and isn't nearly as "fringe" as many of the sports in the Winter Games. It might not be a big sport in the USA, but I'm sure all of you from there are plenty aware of it, regardless. You know it exists. And biathlon is one of the most popular spectator sports in Europe, believe it or not.

Women's half pipe on skis maybe shouldn't be a sport. She was ranked the 34th best in the world, regardless of nationality. That's "world class" in any endeavor.

I like what she did, because she showed the emperor has no clothes.

Same In The summer Olympics wrote:

This stuff happens all the time. David Torrence went to Peru. Nobody threw a fit.

.

That's up for debate.

Methuser wrote:

I get it, she is not an Olympic level halfpipe skier. Not denying that.

However, watch the video of her run. I guarantee over 99% of the world population could not throw on some skis and do exactly what she did.

In fact I guarantee that any normal person who attempted to imitate her supposedly "easy" run would injure themselves.

Don't need to respect her at all, but don't act like anybody could do what she did. This is not the equivalent of joe schmoe running in the Olympic 800.

Trust me I'm not a fan, just injecting some reality into the discussion

This would be like a hobby jogger running a 8:00 in the men's 1500m. Sure, 99% of the world can't do that cause they're fat or have arthritis but it's still a sham.

USA had many qualified skiers for this event but they didn't get to go because they didn't have grandparents from another country.

My local ski mountain is an ant hill, but there are teenagers doing 540s and backflips in the park all the time. She didn't even do a 360!

This dumb blonde did this solely to become a social media star.

maybe or maybe not wrote:

Same In The summer Olympics wrote:

This stuff happens all the time. David Torrence went to Peru. Nobody threw a fit.

.

That's up for debate.

And what about that douche that knocked Jim Ryun out of the Olys?

Props to this chick for filling out her resume.

I am surprised she was not embarrassed herself...like what was she thinking; she must be really confident. The rules need to be changed to prevent this...Also, I have been skiing numerous places, and yes, there are thousands of kids all over that can do more than what she did. If I was an athlete, I would be angry for her making the sport look bad and weak.

You're stupid wrote:

Methuser wrote:

This is not the equivalent of joe schmoe running in the Olympic 800.

This would be like a hobby jogger running a 8:00 in the men's 1500m. Sure, 99% of the world can't do that cause they're fat or have arthritis but it's still a sham.

USA had many qualified skiers for this event but they didn't get to go because they didn't have grandparents from another country.

Again, she was ranked THIRTY FOURTH in the world. Only 6 US skiers qualified and didn't get to go, and no other nation had a qualifier ahead of her. The event is a joke.

She didn't hurt anybody. That's better than the chick from Chad in the Rio 5000m can say.

Here are the rankings going in. 34 and 35 made it into the Olympics. The next person eligible based on nationality would be Team GB ranking in 39th

You're stupid wrote:

This would be like a hobby jogger running a 8:00 in the men's 1500m. Sure, 99% of the world can't do that cause they're fat or have arthritis but it's still a sham.

Nope, it's like a guy who can run a 1500 in 4:20 (good not great high school athlete), and they add the beer mile to the Olympics but most of the world doesn't find out about it. Despite being the 11th best American, he represents his grandparents home country of Hungary.