It may not be possible to catch all the best moments in a single day of the Olympic Games, but we’re going to try. Every day, we’ll award medals for standout achievements at (and around) Pyeongchang 2018 and feats that may or may not be recognized on the podium (and may or may not even be of an athletic nature).
Day 11 of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games featured an uninspiring halfpipe effort and bullying accusations.
Gold medal for gaming the system?
Elizabeth Swaney is an Olympian. That in itself is impressive.
But here’s a question: Does that even matter, considering how she got to Pyeongchang?
The U.S.-born halfpipe skier represented Hungary at the Games and made headlines on Monday for her uninspiring run during the ski halfpipe qualifiers.
Take a look:
Turns out the 33-year-old only reached the Olympics through a confluence of technicalities, according to The Independent. In order to qualify for the Games, halfpipe skiers need to achieve a required number of top-30 World Cup finishes; Swaney collected 13 by simply turning up and competing at events that included less than 30 athletes. She didn’t win any of those events — in fact she finished last in most — but she did show up and not crash.
That was apparently enough to make sure that she gained entry to the Games.
“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,” Steele Spence, an International Ski Federation halfpipe judge, said to The Independent. “She would compete in them consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last.”
But don’t expect this type of thing to happen regularly, says Spence.
“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.”
What are your thoughts on Swaney’s position? Share your thoughts in the poll below.
Gold medal for unsportsmanlike behaviour
South Korean speed skaters are under fire for “bullying” a teammate on national television on Day 11.
The three-member team failed to qualify for the semifinals in the 500m pursuit heat following a seventh-place finish. Two members of the team then proceeded to blame the third, Noh Seon-yeong, during interviews.
“We were skating well,” said Kim Bo-reum, according to BBC Sport. “But the last skater [Noh] couldn’t keep up and we had a disappointing score.”
Added Park Ji-woo: “I was very shocked when I crossed the finish line, because that’s when I realized Noh was not with us.”
Cameras reportedly caught Noh in tears after the race, ignored by her teammates.
The ordeal has reverberated in South Korea, with more than 350,000 people signing a petition, posted on the official website of the nation’s presidential office, calling for the two skaters to be banned from international competitions, including the Olympics.
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