Hungary’s Harvard grad hoping to be inspirational

BONGPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA» A popular internet meme pines for average people in Olympic competition to provide a point of reference.

This week’s Olympic women’s pipe competition offers that plebian context with Elizabeth Swaney. The 33-year-old American with a graduate degree from Harvard University is Hungary’s first Olympic freestyle skier after qualifying through both the country’s quota system and 13 career world cup halfpipe events. In those events she has finished last or within a couple spots of last place.

But she’s no Eddie the Eagle, having fun playing the derring-do Olympian.

Swaney is all in. Even without a trick to throw in the pipe.

“I’m just trying to do the best for myself and represent Hungary as best as I can,” she said just before her final practice Sunday, the day before women’s qualification in the Olympic halfpipe. “I really hope to inspire others in Hungary to take up freestyle skiing and I hope that contributes to a greater number of people out there freestyle skiing.”

Swaney, who said her grandparents came from Hungary, earned her Olympic berth more from attending world cup events than actually competing. Women’s pipe skiing world cups rarely see more than 30 competitors, so it’s not hard to meet the Olympic requirement for a top-30 finish. At last December’s world cup in China, when most of the world’s top skiers were competing in the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain and Dew Tour at Breckenridge, Swaney finished 13th among 15 competitors, her best career performance.

“The field is not that deep in the women’s pipe and she went to every world cup, where there were only 24, 25 or 28 women,” said longtime FIS ski halfpipe and slopestyle judge Steele Spence. “She would compete in them consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last. There are going to be changes to world cup quotas and qualifying to be eligible for the Olympics. Those things are in the works, so technically you need to qualify up through the system.”

Philippe Belanger, the head judge at freeskiing competition at the PyeongChang Olympics, said if Swaney had crashed at three or four world cups, she would not have earned enough points to meet the Olympic qualification and country quota requirements. But Swaney consistent and rarely tumbles. Belanger said the FIS is considering proposals to shrink the number of open positions available for Olympic competitors in the halfpipe. That would require Olympians to harvest more than the minimum points awarded just for showing up and not falling.

“By that we will make the points a bit higher,” Belanger said. “So in that case you are going to need a better placement in each world cup, to not just make it to the Games but to stay on the world cup circuit.”

Swaney has competed in world cup halfpipe contests in California, Colorado, Utah, China, Italy, France, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand since 2013, initially competing for Venezuela and then switching to Hungary in 2016. She has self-funded her efforts, though online fundraisers have helped a little.

She said she graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2007. She said she has a master’s degree in design studies with a concentration in real estate from Harvard. Now she recruits software engineers in the Bay Area.

She has trained with Park City Ski & Snowboard since 2013.

“Her persistence is probably her biggest strength, so she’s always there and she’s gone to all the world cups and she’s put in the time and the miles. She has made some significant improvements on the water ramp, but wasn’t necessarily able to take those tricks to snow,” said Chris Haslock, the club’s free ski and snowboard program director who was a 1988 Olympic aerials athlete.

Through a shuffling in country quotas — where some countries didn’t use all their spots and other country’s bowed out due to athlete injuries — Hungary and Swaney made the cut.

“She’s an interesting study,” Haslock said. “She’s got herself in shape. She’s really worked out and she’s more fit. She’s been tenacious. On the risk side of things, we’d like to see her take more risks.”

While she has developed some spins off Park City’s water ramps, Swaney doesn’t have many tricks or jumps in the 22-foot halfpipe. People watching Olympic-level halfpipe skiing might struggle to grasp the complexity of trickery, and it’s easy for even good skiers to be intimidated by the thought of spinning through several backflips high above the deck. Swaney’s runs, which involve no tricks, are not intimidating. She makes the sport look approachable.

Her fellow competitors have mixed feelings about Swaney’s presence in the Olympics. While no athlete wanted to speak on record, some want the brightest of international stages to be a showcase of the very best. Some said an amateur in the mix might provide perspective. She’s hardly a new skier on the scene. Every halfpipe skier knows Swaney from the world cup circuit. Swaney said she’s not comparing herself to her high-flying comrades, but she’s inspired by them. She wants to be a motivator too.

“I want to inspire others in Hungary and the world to become involved in freestyle skiing,” she said. “Maybe perhaps I’m the bridge to those who want to get started in the life of freestyle skiing, and I want to show people that, yeah, it’s possible to get involved in freestyle skiing through a variety of backgrounds.”