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Thread: The (very bad) American skier who used a loophole to sneak into the Olympics

  1. #1

    The (very bad) American skier who used a loophole to sneak into the Olympics

    LOL @ so much butthurt by the author. I applaud the broad.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/win...ics/ar-BBJkNRc
    The (very bad) American skier who used a loophole to sneak into the Olympics

    If you've ever been watching the Winter Games and thought, "I can do that!" then American freestyle skier Elizabeth Swaney is your spirit Olympian.

    Swaney, an eclectic 33-year-old who ran against Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor as an undergrad at Berkeley and has a masters from Harvard, took advantage of loose Olympic regulations to land a spot in Pyeongchang simply by showing up.

    She competed in the Olympics on Monday, tentatively skiing down the halfpipe and pivoting at the top with no tricks. Her scores ranked her dead last in the competition. The whole thing might be funny if there weren't dozens of other people around the world who'd been training their whole lives to do what Swaney just made a farce of.

    With her Bay Area recruiting job and multiple degrees, Swaney decided to try her hand at halfpipe skiing, which is the same as snowboard halfpipe, just with skis. Swaney wasn't good or even competent. The best she could do was ski up the side of the pipe and come back down. (Granted, that's not an easy thing to do. It takes some skill to be able to navigate the halfpipe without falling over. But it also takes skill to parallel park on the driver's side and you don't see me clamoring to go to South Korea because of it.)

    The goal: make the Olympics.

    As Blevins explains, a skier qualifies for the Games after having a certain number of top 30 finishes in World Cup events. But because skiing halfpipe events don't often have 30 entrants, all Blevins often had to do was show up to get World Cup credit. If a competition had, say, 28 competitors, she'd enter, ski down the pipe the way ordinary people would navigate a slope designated by a green circle, manage to stay upright, receive little-to-no points from judges and wait for someone else to crash. Then she'd move up the standings and get some points to add to her overall total. Do that at enough events and suddenly you have enough World Cup bonafides to qualify for the Games - but only if you're from the right country.

    Swaney couldn't compete for the U.S. - there are too many real competitiors. So she first began skiing under a Venezuelan flag before switching to Hungary, presumably because that nation was able to better assist with her ruse. (She says it's where her grandparents are from.) Ultimately, she landed a spot in Pyeongchang by little more than just showing up.

    To Swaney's credit, she exploited these loopholes to perfection. Last year, Swaney had her best ever finish - a 13th place at a World Cup event in China. That's great, until you consider that all the top skiers were halfway across the world competing in the Dew Tour and only 15 women entered that Chinese event. Regardless, her gambit gave her 200 World Cup points. Do that enough and hope your not-native country is allowed to send competitors to the event because other nations didn't fill their quota and - voila! - you ttoo can be an Olympian.

    more at link...



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  3. #2
    If she is sent to a north korean re education camp she will need to be better .

  4. #3
    Rules is da rules...she appears to be in full compliance, so let her ski.

    That's one of the things that chaps my ass about the compliance/regulation culture we all live under.

    Ya'll want a rule and a law and a regulation for every single damn thing, then get pissed when somebody complies with them all to achieve a result ya'll don't want, because you were not able to conceive of rules that would cover every single damn thing.

    So then we all get more rules.

    The common sense solution would be to do it the way teams are picked in the sandlot.

    A board of say three or six former gold medalists in each sport, picking the best overall.

    But god help us, that would be undemocratic, unfair, and would probably not lead to a suitable number of colored, qu eer, disabled, furries and god knows what else on the team.
    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 02-19-2018 at 11:13 PM.

  5. #4
    If she hadn't done it nobody else would have gotten her slot, so who cares?
    Three cheers for her!
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  6. #5
    NBC is very quick taking olympic videos down.

  7. #6
    How is this even a sport?

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    How is this even a sport?
    It really shouldn't be, but neither should figure skating. It's art, not sport.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
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  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    It really shouldn't be, but neither should figure skating. It's art, not sport.
    There is a degree of athleticism to it.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by shakey1 View Post
    There is a degree of athleticism to it.
    Sure. There's also a degree of athleticism to ballet. But it's art, not sport.
    Last edited by heavenlyboy34; 02-20-2018 at 01:54 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    Sure. There's also a degree of athleticism to ballet. But it's art, not sport.
    I don't know why it can't be both each requiring a skill set w/ routines worth points scored... jus' sayin'.
    Last edited by shakey1; 02-20-2018 at 03:36 PM.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by shakey1 View Post
    I don't know why it can't be both each requiring a skill set w/ routines worth points scored... jus' sayin'.
    Because all the stuff people are judged on in figure skating is subjective-they even get "artistic" points. Real sport is objective-you either scored or you didn't.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12

  14. #12
    Correct, there's really not much point in doing ballet unless you're scoring
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
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  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    Real sport is objective-you either scored or you didn't.
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  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    Because all the stuff people are judged on in figure skating is subjective-they even get "artistic" points. Real sport is objective-you either scored or you didn't.
    Even many/all of those are subjective when you start throwing in referees and what they saw or didn't see. Do you doubt that referees can easily and arbitrarily change the outcome of matches?

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    Even many/all of those are subjective when you start throwing in referees and what they saw or didn't see. Do you doubt that referees can easily and arbitrarily change the outcome of matches?
    Ya but at least referees are SUPPOSED to make objective calls, like for example, did the ball or the foot hit this side of the line, or that side of the line.
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    It really shouldn't be, but neither should figure skating. It's art, not sport.
    Have you seen their workouts?

    Y'all need to look up Eddie the Eagle. He competed in two Olympics for Great Britain as a ski jumper. He was terrible, but a lot of fun. Then the IOC made the Eddie the Eagle rule saying competitors have to meet minimum standards to compete at the Olympics.
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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by euphemia View Post
    Have you seen their workouts?

    Y'all need to look up Eddie the Eagle. He competed in two Olympics for Great Britain as a ski jumper. He was terrible, but a lot of fun. Then the IOC made the Eddie the Eagle rule saying competitors have to meet minimum standards to compete at the Olympics.
    You must take a stack of pills "this" high to qualify...

  21. #18
    I agree with HB34.

    It's art, subjective and not quantifiable.

    Sure, it's athletic art, no doubt, but art nonetheless.

    Hell, I could compete...


  22. #19
    This is straight up awesome. Instead of a participation trophy, the trophy is participation.
    There are no crimes against people.
    There are only crimes against the state.
    And the state will never, ever choose to hold accountable its agents, because a thing can not commit a crime against itself.

  23. #20
    Jan2017
    Member

    Quote Originally Posted by euphemia View Post
    Y'all need to look up Eddie the Eagle. He competed in two Olympics for Great Britain as a ski jumper.
    It was Lillehammer 1994 wasn't it (?) . . . the first Games that Winter were separate year from Summer Games.
    Quote Originally Posted by fisharmor View Post
    This is straight up awesome. Instead of a participation trophy, the trophy is participation.
    Exactly right in the true spirit of the Olympic games - especially the Winter Games - much more fun.

    Anybuddy remember the British ski jumper (?) - never competitive, but risking life to participate . . . Eddie Edwards
    "Eddie the Eagle", is a British skier who in 1988 became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping - qualified in 1987 at a jump in Europe - in those Calgary Olympics in both 70m and 90m events finishing last.

    Short on talent but long on panache and derring-do, he had no illusions about his ability, no dreams of gold or silver or even bronze.

    Although Eddie finished last in the ski jumping events . . .note that :
    At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organizing Committee, Frank King, singled out Edwards for his contribution.
    King said, looking at the competitors, "You have broken world records and you have established personal bests.
    Some of you have even soared like an eagle."
    Last edited by Jan2017; 03-04-2018 at 12:18 AM.

  24. #21
    Jan2017
    Member

    Quote Originally Posted by dannno View Post
    Ya but at least referees are SUPPOSED to make objective calls, like for example, did the ball or the foot hit this side of the line, or that side of the line.
    The ref hanging out in front of the German goalie with a minute left was surely an "equalizer' for
    the Russian miraculous shorthand goal with 55 seconds remaining in the gold medal ice hockey game.

    IOC referee had an easy to make objective call "the puck is in the net" . . .
    after the illegal screen of the German goalie by that effin' IOC ref.



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