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

Country and sport wrote:

She had previously been trying to make it in Skeleton for Venezuela, but that wasn’t working out so she switched countries and sports.

She didn't cheat anyone. Haters gonna hate.

I'd love to know the back story with Venezuela though. I see that Skeleton has an easier spot for each continent. It's how the one male and one female African sled got in. Did she not realize that "Americas" was one continent to the Olympics?

Also, she could have made the Olympics in half pipe representing any country except USA, Canada, and GB. Why didn't she stay with Venezuela?

what about the bobsled wrote:

You should only qualify for the country you were born and raised in, end of story.

^this. Or you have to live and train in the country for at least 8 years before the Olympics.

Same goes to Charles Flaherty who represented Puerto Rico. Embarrassing, but he is now an Olympian and I am not, ce la vie!

national pride wrote:

what about the bobsled wrote:

You should only qualify for the country you were born and raised in, end of story.

^this. Or you have to live and train in the country for at least 8 years before the Olympics.

Yep.

I'm 46. I skied seriously for about 20 years in my youth and raced at a fairly high level. There were no snowboard events and basically three ski racing events until they added freestyle. All of the events back then were highly contested.

In my opinion there are too many winter events now. If an event is not competitive yet it should not be an Olympic sport. It's as simple as that. This is the Olympic Committee's fault.

I haven't put on a pair of skis in about ten years and I could do what she did off of one day back on the slopes. I'm with the South Korean crowd on this one. You could hear a pin drop when she finished.

Long time ago. The Olympics used to allow one athlete per event so people would cheer a 32 minute 10K runner from some obscured country in the heats.

A few decades ago track and field didn't have the stringent standards to compete in the Olympic Games. Most people would not want to compete and make a spectacle of themselves. However, there were a few. We saw people who couldn't break 3 hours run the marathon and I recall watching someone run a 17 minute 5k. At that time 17 min. was a good run for me. I couldn't imagine running in the Olympics and embarrassing myself. But apparently some couldn't care less. Eventually each discipline will catch up and not allow that to happen.

She highlights the problem wrote:

[quote]My opinion sss wrote:

The sacrifices these guys make are mostly financially related. There are more serious track and XC athletes in the high school district I live in than in the entire world for many of these so called Olympic events, and I am totally serious about that.

Truly a dumb hot take, reaching new depths here at Letsrun

A good equivalent here would be if a women in the US ran a 2:45 marathon and qualified for the olympics for her small birth country. Of course she'd have no legit chance at competing in the marathon, but why not take the opportunity. For the rest of her life, she could say she's an olympian.

A few marathon athletes got into the Olympic marathon through a similar loophole.

The standard was 2:16 or so, *or* finishing in the top 10 in a World Marathon Champs series race, gold or silver. Salukombo (a 2-3x D3 AA) was 9th in 2:22, and punched his ticket for Rio, representing Congo. Hrezi was 8th in the same race. A PB of 2:18, but he got to run for Libya.

I am not sure where Swaney fits in vs a 2:22 marathoner.

FelonDJT wrote:

A few marathon athletes got into the Olympic marathon through a similar loophole.

The standard was 2:16 or so, *or* finishing in the top 10 in a World Marathon Champs series race, gold or silver. Salukombo (a 2-3x D3 AA) was 9th in 2:22, and punched his ticket for Rio, representing Congo. Hrezi was 8th in the same race. A PB of 2:18, but he got to run for Libya.

I am not sure where Swaney fits in vs a 2:22 marathoner.

8th and 9th @ Ottawa 2016, which is a Silver label race

So she made the Olympics by being just outside of the top 30 in the world. That's not a bad thing. In terms of track that's like being a 3:34 1500m runner or 13:15 5000m runner.

The problem is that you can be as bad as her and still be a top 35 athlete. There's just no depth. That's not her fault. I applaud her. She didn't scam anyone. She saw an event with no depth and followed the rules to qualify. Good for her. I wish I had done something like that myself.

Hmmm..... wrote:

A good equivalent here would be if a women in the US ran a 2:45 marathon and qualified for the olympics for her small birth country. Of course she'd have no legit chance at competing in the marathon, but why not take the opportunity. For the rest of her life, she could say she's an olympian.

Too many people here have never been on skiing. You don’t understand how truly pedestrian and bad she is. Think about someone with no talent and no experience starting to run 8 years ago. Then they train like any hobby jogger who just wants to finish a marathon. And instead of running on the road she trains on an elliptical at the gym. Then at the Olympics she finishes fresh faced and happy - you are looking at a 5 hour plus marathoner.

There are 2 very big reasons I'm happy she's in the Olympics.

(btw we are 6 pages into this thread and NOBODY has posted pics????????? dad voice: I'm not mad, just very disappointed.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/4cms6iPdAh/?taken-by=lizswaney

Mtn Dew wrote:

I wish I had done something like that myself.

Why? I don't think the woman scammed anyone, but I really just can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to go to such lengths to suck at something.

please explain wrote:

Mtn Dew wrote:

I wish I had done something like that myself.

Why? I don't think the woman scammed anyone, but I really just can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to go to such lengths to suck at something.

That is what most people don't get. She is not even trying to, "compete". Not pushing herself. No risks. Nothing. Just get down her run w/out falling over. That is extraordinarily unambitious. If I were in her position, I would have trained my ass off to do a least one jump/trick. But she does nothing. I don't get it.

Hmmm..... wrote:

A good equivalent here would be if a women in the US ran a 2:45 marathon and qualified for the olympics for her small birth country. Of course she'd have no legit chance at competing in the marathon, but why not take the opportunity. For the rest of her life, she could say she's an olympian.

More like a 5:45

OK, I'm starting to understand. Here is one of her pleas for money. Her "training" is pretty laughable.

https://www.rallyme.com/rallies/2536

Hmmm..... wrote:

OK, I'm starting to understand. Here is one of her pleas for money. Her "training" is pretty laughable.

https://www.rallyme.com/rallies/2536

I think I understand now from that video. Remember the guy who lived in his parents garage who would post videos of his 800m training and talk about how strong he was. He was obviously mentally ill. And that MMA guy, also suffering from some sort of disability, who was running world record times on his treadmill calibrated to km but he thought was in miles. Her video is exactly like those two guys. Her father was asked if she had autism and he gave a weird answer. No normal person would post that video and think it showed any athletic ability, it’s intensely embarrassing. Maybe there is something really wrong with her?

I think she has a touch of the 'Spergs and needs to date Jamin.