This Silicon Valley skier just gave the least impressive performance of the Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics have been full of mind-blowing feats of athleticism and artistry.
This is not one of them.
Elizabeth Swaney made her Olympic debut in the freeski halfpipe on Monday. It was ... not impressive. She casually slides back and forth down the halfpipe, like she's on vacation in Aspen instead of competing against elite athletes. She barely even attempts a trick.
(We can't embed the video, because NBC Sports apparently doesn't want too many people watching the Winter Olympics, but the footage can be found here.)
She was competing for Hungary, which sounds like it could be an inspiring story. Maybe the country barely has a ski program, and she was making the best of it?
But, nope, she's a software engineer recruiter in the Bay Area who found a way to game the system. She paid to travel around the world and attend as many World Cup halfpipe events as she could, being careful not to fall down during her runs. She always "finished last or within a couple spots of last place," reports the Denver Post.
Since the field in the women's freeski halfpipe isn't that deep, she qualified mostly by not falling down, instead of, you know, being good at her sport. Oh, and she says her grandparents are Hungarian.
Not everyone was amused by her antics.
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Truly, an inspiring Olympic story for the ages.
Topics Olympics
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
