A female skier found a genius hack which allowed her to compete in the Winter Olympics as a complete beginner.
Elizabeth Swaney, an American-born Hungarian, was criticised for not performing tricks during her stint at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
The Winter Olympics, an international winter multi-sport event, was hosted by South Korea from 9 to 25 February in 2018.
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The now 38-year-old who competed for Hungary at that time, failed to impress the public and Olympics officials as her performance in the ski halfpipe run lacked the required minimum air off the ramp.
Although she couldn't make it to the final, she managed to meet the top-30 requirement by participating in competitions with fewer than 30 athletes, thus ensuring she achieved the necessary 13 finishes.
Following her viral TikTok videos, Swaney became an overnight social media sensation and now wants to inspire the next generation by making her presence felt in the competition.
She said: “I want to inspire others in Hungary and the world to become involved in freestyle skiing.
“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."
Swaney had an opportunity to secure a 13th-place finish out of 15 competitors, however, this was possible due to several top athletes opting to compete in other prominent events such as the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain and the Dew Tour at Breckenridge.
Swaney managed to accumulate enough finishes to qualify for the Olympics by focusing on avoiding crashes and completing her runs.
FIS Ski Halfpipe judge Steele Spence has since announced that the qualification process will be modified in order to raise the standards for participating athletes at the Winter Olympics.
“The field is not that deep in the women’s pipe and she [Swaney] went to every World Cup, where there were only 24, 25, or 28 women," he said, in reference to the Hungarian athlete.
“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.”
The next Winter Olympics will be co-hosted in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina in February 2026.
Rashi Agarwal