false premise......... wrote:
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.
For future reference, the OP put the word scam in quotations. This is done when the author doesn't agree with the use of the term, so, that clearly the OP didn't think it was a "scam" but was asking if it was nonetheless right or wrong.
If she didn't take her "rightful spot"? She earned her spot by being able to travel the world and attend events in places like China where only 15 women showed up, two crashed so she got 13th place and none of the top athletes were there.
The women ranked just behind ES's "rightful spot" is a Canadian Rosalind Groenewoud (I think she got the last slot for the games) - you can go ahead and watch her do the half-pipe here, and decide for yourself if it would have been a bad thing if someone ranked behind ES went to the games instead of her; or just maybe someone ranked behind her would have been able to actually compete, which ES could not do. She is just shameless enough and could afford the cost to, like always, show up and inevitably finish last.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYYqy5D67U