The Mysterious Freestyle Skier Elizabeth Swaney

[DGUtley]

If you happened to tune in to the Winter Games last year during the women’s halfpipe skiing competition, you might have caught one of the Olympics’ most perplexing moments. Elizabeth Swaney — an Oakland native who’d been a last-minute add to the Hungarian team — started her run, and something really weird happened: She didn’t do any tricks.

Instead, she rose neatly up and down the sides of the ramp in bizarrely underwhelming fashion, as the TV announcers, thoroughly confused, narrated the action: “Liz dropping in … just getting up to the top of the wall.… Easing up to the top of the wall, showing the judges she can make it down this halfpipe clean.” The overall effect was of a basketball player dribbling up and down the court while never shooting
the ball, or a figure skater cruising in circles on the ice without a single jump. When Swaney finished her run, she carved her way to a stop at the bottom of the course beside a throng of spectators in parkas, pumped her fist three times, and looked up at the scoreboard, waiting for the judges’ tally, as though hoping she might have done well enough to advance to the medal round. After a minute, the numbers popped up: She’d totaled 31.4, one of the lowest scores ever recorded in the sport’s Olympic history. She finished in last place.

She is now changing the conversation.

https://story.californiasunday.com/elizabeth-swaney







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[nathanbforrest45]

Another one that is famous for being famous.

[donttread]

If you happened to tune in to the Winter Games last year during the women’s halfpipe skiing competition, you might have caught one of the Olympics’ most perplexing moments. Elizabeth Swaney — an Oakland native who’d been a last-minute add to the Hungarian team — started her run, and something really weird happened: She didn’t do any tricks.

Instead, she rose neatly up and down the sides of the ramp in bizarrely underwhelming fashion, as the TV announcers, thoroughly confused, narrated the action: “Liz dropping in … just getting up to the top of the wall.… Easing up to the top of the wall, showing the judges she can make it down this halfpipe clean.” The overall effect was of a basketball player dribbling up and down the court while never shooting
the ball, or a figure skater cruising in circles on the ice without a single jump. When Swaney finished her run, she carved her way to a stop at the bottom of the course beside a throng of spectators in parkas, pumped her fist three times, and looked up at the scoreboard, waiting for the judges’ tally, as though hoping she might have done well enough to advance to the medal round. After a minute, the numbers popped up: She’d totaled 31.4, one of the lowest scores ever recorded in the sport’s Olympic history. She finished in last place.

She is now changing the conversation.

https://story.californiasunday.com/elizabeth-swaney







Attachment 25588

I don't imagine Oakland produces a lot of skiers.

[Tahuyaman]

Her story is kind of interesting.