For most athletes, the idea of competing in the Olympic games is a dream as tantalising (and unlikely) as winning the lottery. Many would kill for the opportunity to qualify and to represent their country. But the sad fact is that for most people this dream will remain exactly that: an unachievable fantasy. Because to the general public, the Olympic games represent (literally) the gold standard for athleticism.

You expect someone to be the best of the best and at the peak of their abilities to even stand a chance of qualifying. Even then, there's always a chance that they'll be dismissed in favour of someone who's just that little bit better. Then you've got to factor in the costs; the price of all that expensive equipment, the personal trainers. It all runs contrary to the original ethos of the Olympics; something designed so that amateurs could participate.

But now, at the 2018 Winter Olympics currently taking place in PyeongChang, an ordinary American woman has managed to prove that it's still possible for anyone, even the most average of athletes, to compete in the Olympics. The trouble is, her obvious lack of skill compared to her teammates has already managed to provoke a lot of controversy. Is she arrogantly flaunting the spirit of the games so she can satisfy her own narcissistic ego? Or, on the contrary, is she actually embodying the Olympic spirit as it was meant to manifest itself? The debate rages on, and the woman in question has become a figure of scorn for some, and a cult hero to others.

Elizabeth Swaney, the 33-year old American currently competing as a freestyle skier for Hungary, is not brilliant. Well, that's not strictly true: by the standards of your average guy on the street, she's pretty good. But by the standards of the Olympic committee, she's about as mediocre as they come. While flying down the halfpipe, she doesn't attempt to pull off any tricks or flashy manoeuvres, instead simply concentrating on not tumbling over. The judges are polite about her performance but have few words of praise. You'd think she'd be embarrassed to be rubbing shoulders with the other 14 members of her team. But on the contrary, she is exhilarated. For years she was determined to compete in the Olympics no matter what and she wasn't about to let a little thing like the quality of her performance stand in her way. 

Swaney's biography reveals an ambition that knows no bounds. She graduated from Berkeley and attempted to run for governor of California against Arnold Schwarzenegger at the age of 19. When her campaign (inevitably) failed, she went to Harvard to secure a degree in design, and currently works in the Bay Area as a recruiter for software engineers. Yet, in all that time she still harboured the hope of competing as an Olympian. First, she attempted crowdfunding, but her GoFundMe and RallyMe pages made no money whatsoever. So she took on multiple jobs in order to scrape together enough cash to fund her endeavours herself.

But Swaney was cunning and undeterred. She went shopping for winter sports that were easy to participate in and learned that the rules for admission in the freestyle skiing were comparatively loose since there were few women on the circuit and a four participant limit for each nation. She dutifully attended qualifiers for the teams of a number of countries, such as South Korea, Italy, Canada, China and New Zealand.

Swaney was eventually able to claim that she had Hungarian ancestry through her grandparents, and once she'd fulfilled an arbitrary system of quotas, she eventually qualified for the Olympics... even though she'd never attempted a single trick above the deck. Apparently, a lot of this was down to her sheer determination and the number of qualifiers she competed in. Usually, when other skiers would attempt a risky stunt, they would end up badly injuring themselves, ensuring that slow-and-steady Swaney wasn't always placed last.

When Andras Bajai, President of the Hungarian Ski Federation, phoned her in 2017 to offer her a place on the Hungarian team, she leapt at the chance and rushed to Budapest for an anti-doping test. Later on, Bajai ended up receiving harsh criticism for his decision to put Swaney on the team. In a country of fewer than 10 million people, Hungary's funding for skiing is small and Bajai has since claimed that he did not realise how unskilled Swaney was when the federation accepted her. Why should he have suspected that someone who would attempt to qualify for the Winter Olympics wasn't among the top one percentile of skiers? What would motivate someone to do something so ludicrous, and potentially humiliating?

However, Bajai still defends Swaney, despite her shortcomings. "I’ve received lots of negative comments and very, very few positive comments,” he stated. "I, personally, disagree with all these negative comments. Because this gives a boost to the younger generation that, yes, we can make it to the Olympics, even if we will not become major players. I really do hope that I will be able to work with Elizabeth on freestyle skiing in Hungary. Because today she’s the only one."

Swaney's friends and relatives attribute the situation at hand to her limitless optimism. "It’s really disappointing to see how quickly people jump to conclusions," stated longtime friend Eric Hand. "They look at something surface-deep and assume the worst. If people really looked at her at a deeper level, there’s a more amazing story there ... She truly believes and sees the positive side of everything. I’m jealous of it. She definitely seems to operate at a different level than the rest of us. Things that would affect any normal person she shrugs off much easier than she should. That’s gotten her into situations like, ‘What are you doing, Liz? That’s a distraction. It’s not worth it.’ For her, for whatever reason, it is. And she does it."

Indeed, it's fair to say that the internet, and the sports media in general, has not been kind in their assessment of Swaney. Despite the fact that her Olympic endeavours have been self-funded, and despite the fact that she's abided by the rules, many commentators have been content to characterise her as a charlatan or an embarrassment. Hungarian website Origo ran with the headline “Here is the video that the whole world laughs (at) – Elizabeth Swaney at the Olympics,” and an Austrian called her first attempt, "The most embarrassing performance of the Olympics.”

Perusing the comments of Swaney's Instagram pictures also reveals some very nasty comments. "Ugly and bad at skiing. Jesus you’re worthless," wrote one person, while another chimed in to say "[Swaney] stole a spot from a worthy candidate because she thought she deserved the Olympic experience. I thought it was very selfish. The whole 'look-at-me' attitude, 'I'll get to put this on Instagram!'"

Yes, it's easy for angry people on the internet to criticise, but maybe we should look at what Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, would have thought about the situation. De Coubertin once said: "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part. The important thing in life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Personally, I see nothing wrong with her competing, and if nothing else, her mediocrity is a good metric by which we can better observe the skill of the other contestants. I don't see her winning a gold medal anytime soon, but that's not what she's after. I think she's just here to take part, and so far she's done so without cheating, doping, or excessive self-promotion. That's an example a lot more athletes could follow.

For most athletes, the idea of competing in the Olympic games is a dream as tantalising (and unlikely) as winning the lottery. Many would kill for the opportunity to qualify and to represent their country. But the sad fact is that for most people this dream will remain exactly that: an unachievable fantasy. Because to the general public, the Olympic games represent (literally) the gold standard for athleticism.

You expect someone to be the best of the best and at the peak of their abilities to even stand a chance of qualifying. Even then, there's always a chance that they'll be dismissed in favour of someone who's just that little bit better. Then you've got to factor in the costs; the price of all that expensive equipment, the personal trainers. It all runs contrary to the original ethos of the Olympics; something designed so that amateurs could participate.

But now, at the 2018 Winter Olympics currently taking place in PyeongChang, an ordinary American woman has managed to prove that it's still possible for anyone, even the most average of athletes, to compete in the Olympics. The trouble is, her obvious lack of skill compared to her teammates has already managed to provoke a lot of controversy. Is she arrogantly flaunting the spirit of the games so she can satisfy her own narcissistic ego? Or, on the contrary, is she actually embodying the Olympic spirit as it was meant to manifest itself? The debate rages on, and the woman in question has become a figure of scorn for some, and a cult hero to others.

Elizabeth Swaney, the 33-year old American currently competing as a freestyle skier for Hungary, is not brilliant. Well, that's not strictly true: by the standards of your average guy on the street, she's pretty good. But by the standards of the Olympic committee, she's about as mediocre as they come. While flying down the halfpipe, she doesn't attempt to pull off any tricks or flashy manoeuvres, instead simply concentrating on not tumbling over. The judges are polite about her performance but have few words of praise. You'd think she'd be embarrassed to be rubbing shoulders with the other 14 members of her team. But on the contrary, she is exhilarated. For years she was determined to compete in the Olympics no matter what and she wasn't about to let a little thing like the quality of her performance stand in her way. 

Swaney's biography reveals an ambition that knows no bounds. She graduated from Berkeley and attempted to run for governor of California against Arnold Schwarzenegger at the age of 19. When her campaign (inevitably) failed, she went to Harvard to secure a degree in design, and currently works in the Bay Area as a recruiter for software engineers. Yet, in all that time she still harboured the hope of competing as an Olympian. First, she attempted crowdfunding, but her GoFundMe and RallyMe pages made no money whatsoever. So she took on multiple jobs in order to scrape together enough cash to fund her endeavours herself.

But Swaney was cunning and undeterred. She went shopping for winter sports that were easy to participate in and learned that the rules for admission in the freestyle skiing were comparatively loose since there were few women on the circuit and a four participant limit for each nation. She dutifully attended qualifiers for the teams of a number of countries, such as South Korea, Italy, Canada, China and New Zealand.

Swaney was eventually able to claim that she had Hungarian ancestry through her grandparents, and once she'd fulfilled an arbitrary system of quotas, she eventually qualified for the Olympics... even though she'd never attempted a single trick above the deck. Apparently, a lot of this was down to her sheer determination and the number of qualifiers she competed in. Usually, when other skiers would attempt a risky stunt, they would end up badly injuring themselves, ensuring that slow-and-steady Swaney wasn't always placed last.

When Andras Bajai, President of the Hungarian Ski Federation, phoned her in 2017 to offer her a place on the Hungarian team, she leapt at the chance and rushed to Budapest for an anti-doping test. Later on, Bajai ended up receiving harsh criticism for his decision to put Swaney on the team. In a country of fewer than 10 million people, Hungary's funding for skiing is small and Bajai has since claimed that he did not realise how unskilled Swaney was when the federation accepted her. Why should he have suspected that someone who would attempt to qualify for the Winter Olympics wasn't among the top one percentile of skiers? What would motivate someone to do something so ludicrous, and potentially humiliating?

However, Bajai still defends Swaney, despite her shortcomings. "I’ve received lots of negative comments and very, very few positive comments,” he stated. "I, personally, disagree with all these negative comments. Because this gives a boost to the younger generation that, yes, we can make it to the Olympics, even if we will not become major players. I really do hope that I will be able to work with Elizabeth on freestyle skiing in Hungary. Because today she’s the only one."

Swaney's friends and relatives attribute the situation at hand to her limitless optimism. "It’s really disappointing to see how quickly people jump to conclusions," stated longtime friend Eric Hand. "They look at something surface-deep and assume the worst. If people really looked at her at a deeper level, there’s a more amazing story there ... She truly believes and sees the positive side of everything. I’m jealous of it. She definitely seems to operate at a different level than the rest of us. Things that would affect any normal person she shrugs off much easier than she should. That’s gotten her into situations like, ‘What are you doing, Liz? That’s a distraction. It’s not worth it.’ For her, for whatever reason, it is. And she does it."

Indeed, it's fair to say that the internet, and the sports media in general, has not been kind in their assessment of Swaney. Despite the fact that her Olympic endeavours have been self-funded, and despite the fact that she's abided by the rules, many commentators have been content to characterise her as a charlatan or an embarrassment. Hungarian website Origo ran with the headline “Here is the video that the whole world laughs (at) – Elizabeth Swaney at the Olympics,” and an Austrian called her first attempt, "The most embarrassing performance of the Olympics.”

Perusing the comments of Swaney's Instagram pictures also reveals some very nasty comments. "Ugly and bad at skiing. Jesus you’re worthless," wrote one person, while another chimed in to say "[Swaney] stole a spot from a worthy candidate because she thought she deserved the Olympic experience. I thought it was very selfish. The whole 'look-at-me' attitude, 'I'll get to put this on Instagram!'"

Yes, it's easy for angry people on the internet to criticise, but maybe we should look at what Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, would have thought about the situation. De Coubertin once said: "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part. The important thing in life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Personally, I see nothing wrong with her competing, and if nothing else, her mediocrity is a good metric by which we can better observe the skill of the other contestants. I don't see her winning a gold medal anytime soon, but that's not what she's after. I think she's just here to take part, and so far she's done so without cheating, doping, or excessive self-promotion. That's an example a lot more athletes could follow.