A LOW DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY
WOMEN ’S HALFPIPE
Elizabeth Swaney is not bad at skiing, but she is not very good, either, and certainly not Olympiccaliber in the halfpipe. So how, at age 33 no less, did she manage to make her way into the field at that event in the Winter Games?
The answer lies in the eye of the beholder. Either Swaney is an embarrassment to the Olympics who gamed the system on her way to Pyeongchang, or she is an admirable study in persistence who provided the kind of offbeat story at the Games that has charmed us in the past.
Swaney’s run at these Olympics is over following a last-place finish during Monday’s qualifying rounds for the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe final. She told Reuters that she was “really disappointed” at not having qualified for Tuesday’s final, but showed some pride in simply getting as far as she did.
Some who watched her compete Monday may have wondered what in the world Swaney was trying to achieve, given that while the elite skiers around her were risking major injury with highflying tricks, she was content to mostly ride up the side of the pipe and do a little hop while turning around. She added a teeny bit of flair to her first run by skiing backward out of the pipe.
Swaney posted a high score of just 31.40. For context, the lowest qualifying score was 72.80.
Born and raised in the United States, where she attended Cal-Berkeley and Harvard, Swaney competed at Pyeongchang for Hungary, where she said she has heritage through her maternal grandparents. When Swaney began competing in halfpipe events in 2013, she was representing Venezuela, then switched to Hungary in 2016.
Her spot in the Olympics is a result of the relative lack of depth in women’s halfpipe and the fact that some countries that dominate in the sport, such as the U.S., can only send four competitors. Swaney did her part, at least according to the rules for eligibility set forth by the International Ski Federation (FIS), by doggedly appearing at World Cup events — and not falling.
The minimum requirements for making it to the Winter Games included consistently finishing in the top 30 in World Cup events and accumulating enough FIS points. The former was not a major problem, as many World Cup events did not attract 30 women.
The Denver Post reported that Swaney’s fellow competitors at the Games had “mixed feelings” about her presence and preferred not to speak on the record.