I found out about this woman that competed in the women's half pipe skiing event, at THE OLYMPICS mind you. Her name is Elizabeth Swaney.
Please take a look at a video of her recent run, if you haven't seen the run yet. You can find it on YouTube or other sources. I would love to hear your opinions.
For me, having done an a bit of extra research on this woman, it kind of angers me. She is only there for the attention and publicity.
- She is an American skiing for Hungary.
- The only reason she qualified is because Hungary was not sending a women's half pipe skier, so she filled in this position.
- She basically used a loophole, by attending every international competition and earning a few points each time...and earned enough to qualify for the Olympics. The only people she beat, were other women that actually tried to land tricks, but fell down during their runs.
- She ran for governor of California when she was 19, still attending college! What?
- She tried out and failed making the cheer-leading squad for the Oakland Raiders football team.
- She gave up on trying to compete in the Olympics as a women's skeleton competitor...for Venezuela! What?!
Come on.
I mean good for her. She made it there, she got to be on TV and compete in this event like she wanted to...but is this not making a mockery of the women that are actually good at the event and compete at a high level? Should people like this be allowed to compete? She made 0 effort to do a single trick...she just skied down the half pipe slowly back and forth, barely getting a few inches of air.
I could give someone like this the benefit of the doubt if they did not have the track record Swaney does. Clearly just out for as much attention and free press that she can get her hands on...and I guess it is working really well. Nobody is talking about the women that actually won medals in this event. Everyone is talking about Swaney.
I don't like this.
What are your thoughts? Please share...
