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

Olympic ski half pipe would be roughly equivalent to Boston Marathon if Boston only gave medals to the first 2,000 per gender.

Remeberer wrote:

Remember the ok nouns are not a national championship, they are an international competition between each country’s best athletes. If she is Hungary’s best athlete then she belongs there. Get over it for if you’re jealous she is an Olympian and you’re not.

Actually just because you are the best athlete in a country does not guarantee your entry into the Olympics.

She highlights the problem wrote:

My opinion sss wrote:

I’m sorry, but the entire Winter Olympics is sham Olympics for second class athletes.

No kidding, people are pretending like the rest of the field was so much more deserving when in fact they aren’t a lot different than her, (i.e. young with money to burn and in a sport without a lot of serious competition and what competetition there is is deluded over many many events.). It’s not like they had to rise to the top of an extremely deep sport like distance running.

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.

Oh please...

So many US athletes in winter sports live a pretty monastic lifestyle. Go back and find the info on the stipend check Lolo Jones got from US Bobsled and Skeleton.

The athletes I have known (dozens in the winter sports) travel the world and not in posh hotels or first class either. They put aside careers and family for the chance to compete.

what about the bobsled wrote:

everyone making a big deal about this, but what about the Nigerian women's bobsled team? All American athletes as well. Have any of them ever been to Nigeria? Would they have qualified for the US, or did they too shop around for a country so they can call themselves Olympians.

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

Honestly, I knew nothing about the Nigerian bobsled team so I could not get enraged (not that I am enraged or affected by any of this).

I am not willing to go to that end.

Meb was not born here, but he grew up here. Some people leave their home countries for reasons like THEY MIGHT BE KILLED!

I have a bigger issue with what countries like Qatar do--the outright buying of athletes.

ck3237 wrote:

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.

False. The rule was that if a country did not have an athlete in any event in track with at least the "B" standard the country could choose 1 person in 1 event to compete. For instance in 1996 Afghanistan had 1 marathon runner. (Technically this is an IAAF rule not an IOC rule).

ck3237 wrote:

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.

Although I should probably have asked "how long ago are you talking"? When were "standards" but in to keep the number of athletes manageable put into place?

FelonDJT wrote:

She went to competitions where there were less than 30 competitors, and made sure she did not fall. The Olympic rules require you finish in the top 30 in X number of global competitions.

Part of this problem lies on the OIC rules. A simple change would have prevented this disaster. Instead of having to finish in the "top-30" they need to make it the "top-75%" or something. Hell, in her case they could have made it the "top-95%" and she wouldn't have qualified. I assume she finished dead last in every event she entered. This would prevent a qualifying finish from occurring just due to the number of entrants.

hammer meet nail wrote:

Part of this problem lies on the OIC rules.

Not IOC, The FIS sets the Olympic rules.

hammer meet nail wrote:

I assume she finished dead last in every event she entered.

You would be wrong. Athletes get two runs. If they crash on each one, this angel would beat them. She regularly finished in the top 90%.

Outside of Team GB, Team Canada, and Team USA, who all weren't allowed more competitors due to nationality limits, there wasn't anybody left to compete. You have to realize outside of these nations the competition is paper thin.

Remember she cherry picked this event due to lack of competition. She started with skeleton and switched when she realized this was easier and doable.

It's obvious they make the competitors collect FIS World Cup points so the athletes have to travel around the world to collect points, and events pay FIS to sanction events so they can attract competitors.

Your best hope is that China and Japan start throwing money at this event to have more competitors. I'm pretty sure China will produce enough athletes that this won't happen again in Beijing 2022. It will go back to Cross Country is the way for limited talent athletes to get in.

Really Bro wrote:

You would be wrong. Athletes get two runs. If they crash on each one, this angel would beat them. She regularly finished in the top 90%.

She almost always finished last. The only times she didn’t finish last was if someone crashed out, which is the equivalent to beating people who dnf’d. And the only reason people crash is because they actually tried to compete and do tricks. She would just ski slowly down the pipe and never attempt a trick to make sure she didn’t crash.

hammer meet nail wrote:

FelonDJT wrote:

She went to competitions where there were less than 30 competitors, and made sure she did not fall. The Olympic rules require you finish in the top 30 in X number of global competitions.

Part of this problem lies on the OIC rules. A simple change would have prevented this disaster. Instead of having to finish in the "top-30" they need to make it the "top-75%" or something. Hell, in her case they could have made it the "top-95%" and she wouldn't have qualified. I assume she finished dead last in every event she entered. This would prevent a qualifying finish from occurring just due to the number of entrants.

No, just set a minimum score that the competitor has to achieve in order to qualify. If you want to run the Olympic 1500m, you have to hit the standard in that event. They could do the exact same thing with half-pipe.

Why not just refer to the event as something like "The Winter Sports Festival" or "Winter World Games" because the Olympics still has, I think, a context for almost everyone of being the Everest of sport, an aura of being the best of the best in your country in a sport that everyone in your country would have at least had a chance to try.

Too much made for TV, trick shot, get female and gen x ratings, events in the current winter games.

Imagine telling the grandson 40 years from now, "That's right sonny, I got that bronze in the prestigious big air event."

"Oh, Grandpa - you're just like Jesse Owens."

I'm all for Olympic slots going to developing nations who don't have a history competing in that sport (and I recognize that she did actually qualify through the official channels, but this just shows how screw up their qualifying is). But this is NOT that. This is an American finding a way to scam not only the Olympics but Hungary. If she grew up in Hungary I would have a different opinion, but this was exactly as the title describes. Those developing country slots in the Olympics are there to try to inspire developing countries, but I can't imagine very many people in Hungary are holding her up as any kind of inspiration and would guess that most of them don't view her as Hungarian.

As someone who spent years and years pursuing an Olympic dream, this is just lame.

Damn, has anybody read some of the comments on her Instagram? She is getting toasted!

https://www.instagram.com/lizswaney/

celebrity roast wrote:

Damn, has anybody read some of the comments on her Instagram? She is getting toasted!

y/

Check out the comments on every article. There are a handful of trolls claiming to support her and everyone else just tearing her apart. Nobody will think this experience was positive except her and her dad. She proved to people that it’s a bad idea to do what she did - be a non-athlete amount athletes

Sara Palin wrote:

You're stupid wrote:

LoL more like 5:00 or 6:00!! Also, her birth country is USA!!!

I'm going 3:30. This girl is easily as athletic as a Boston Qualifier. Some of you guys are either under appreciating her abilities or over estimating everyone else's skiing ability.

She’s really not. I doubt she even put in the training to finish a marathon at all, let alone 5 hours. You are a non-skier who doesn’t understand how bad she is. Can you go to a track and find a handful of random kids who can qualify for Boston? Any day you can go to a ski hill and easily find more than a handful of kids who outdo her easily. She’s bad. Really really really bad.

Idiot spotted wrote:

Sara Palin wrote:

I'm going 3:30. This girl is easily as athletic as a Boston Qualifier. Some of you guys are either under appreciating her abilities or over estimating everyone else's skiing ability.

She’s really not. I doubt she even put in the training to finish a marathon at all, let alone 5 hours. You are a non-skier who doesn’t understand how bad she is.

I believe she spent an average of 6 hours a week training for a year. I've seen plenty of people lose weight and get into marathon shape.

Look, you are obviously proud of your Boston Qualifier. It's a great accomplishmentand im proud of you, too. But you are blowing smoke if you think you're that much better than everybody else.

I didn’t read the insta posts but saw some of the pix. She posts pix which make it seem like she is a true Olympic athlete, like she is one of “them.” When in fact she exploited a loophole and was able to participate in the Olympics. Posting pix that make it look like it was legit merely inflames those who understand the difficulty in becoming a true Olympian. I agree w those who state that her skiing skills are on par with thousands of recreational skiers at any decent mountain on any given day.

Would introducing some sort of penalty for the last-place finisher in the Olympic events such as a 20 thousand dollar fine plus 10 years in humanitarian labor camp get rid of this sort of problem?

Olympic Spirit wrote:

its not a right wrote:

She didn't compete at all. The half-pipe is all about aerial tricks, Cassie Sharpe did back to back 900's and finished with a cork 1080 to win gold. This woman didn't do a single trick at the Olympics or in any event leading up to the Olympics. She was not there to compete, for Hungary, Venezuela, or any country.

"The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part."

- Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin

The general situation being debated here is how much respect/legitimacy should be granted to a person who obtains citizenship with a country for the explicit purpose of competing in an Olympic event for which they cannot make the team in their country of origin. But as others have pointed out, it’s entirely different when that person is world class in their discipline vs lacking basic competence.

To enter a half-pipe competition and do no tricks goes the basic premise of the sport; it is disrespectful to the spirit of competition and “taking part.” It is not the same as someone coming from their own country and doing their best in a sport not paracticed in that country.

This athlete was entitled to compete because the rules of entry were poorly formulated, but she deserves no respect.