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Viewers can safely assume that even those Olympians far down the standings are still elite athletes among the very best in their sport.
However, American freestyle skier Elizabeth Swaney’s halfpipe runs on Monday were so average it left many people scratching their heads.
Hungary must be so proud...
— Lily Whyte-Lilith (@LilywhiteLilyth) February 19, 2018
American skier Elizabeth Swaney, who represents Hungary in the Olympics, performed an UNIMAGINABLY MEDIOCRE Halfpipe run just so you didn't have to do it yourself -- although you (or perhaps a monkey) would have performed loads better than she did.... pic.twitter.com/jX31Lh7Wvs
Viewers demanded an explanation following the run and it appears there is a rather technical and authentic way to make it to the Olympics without actually being very good at the event.
To start with, the American born Swaney is eligible to ski for Hungary because of her Hungarian grandparents.
Hungarian #Calympian @ElizabethSwaney just had her first (of two) qualifying run in Ladies' #SkiHalfpipe #FreestyleSkiing #PyeongChang2008 #GoBears pic.twitter.com/5Gi6QCDcx8
— Ruey Yen (@YRueyYen) February 19, 2018
Through a shuffling of each country's participating athlete quotas, where some countries didn’t use all their spots and other country’s bowed out due to athlete injuries, Swaney made the cut thanks to her extremely low but consistent World Cup results.
“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," ski halfpipe and slopestyle judge Steele Spence told the Denver Post.
“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.”
Needless to say, there were some unhappy freestyle skiers watching who did not qualify for the Olympics.
However, for viewers at home, Swaney did add an interesting glimpse at what an average athlete looks like in an Olympic event.
Every Olympic event should include one average person competing for reference.
— Bill Murray (@BiIIMurray) July 19, 2016
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