Elizabeth Swaney

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Elizabeth Swaney Freestyle skiing
nation VenezuelaVenezuela Venezuela (until 2014) Hungary (since 2016)
HungaryHungary 
birthday 30th July 1984 (age 36)
place of birth Berkeley , United States
Career
discipline halfpipe
society Fullsport SE
Placements in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup
 Debut in the World Cup February 2, 2013
 Overall World Cup 157th ( 2016/17 )
 Halfpipe World Cup 31. ( 2015/16 )
last change: February 19, 2018

Elizabeth Marian "Liz" Swaney (born July 30, 1984 in Berkeley , California ) is an American freestyle skier who has competed for Hungary since 2015 . Her specialty is the halfpipe . In 2018 she took part in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang .

biography

Training and athletic beginnings

Elizabeth Swaney grew up in the United States . After her high school graduation in Oakland , she went to UC Berkeley , where she first as a coxswain the rowing team joined the men. Over the next four years she completed a degree with the three main subjects political economy of industrial societies, German studies and political science , from which she graduated with a BA . She then moved to Harvard and obtained a Masters in Design in 2009 . She also worked as an assistant in the university's athletics team and tried her hand at skeleton .

Away from sport, Swaney competed against Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 California gubernatorial elections at the age of 19 .

Freestyle skiing

She only started skiing at the age of 25, with the dream destination of the Olympics in mind. Between February 2013 and January 2014 she took part in halfpipe events in the World Cup under the Venezuelan flag . She also competed in the Nor-Am Cup , which she finished in tenth and last place. Thus she missed the qualification for the Olympic Winter Games 2014 .

With a view to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , she decided in 2015 to compete for Hungary , the country of origin of her grandparents. In the following two winters she took part in several World Cup competitions, always placing less emphasis on aesthetics than on getting through safely. In this way she managed to meet all qualification criteria and qualified for the major event. She achieved her best result in December 2017 with a 13th place in China - however, only 15 athletes entered this competition. At the World Championships in Sierra Nevada , she failed as 21st to qualify for the final.

At the Games in South Korea , their unorthodox practice finally caused an international stir. In qualifying for the halfpipe competition , she completed both runs without showing a single trick and only turned 180 degrees with little air. With 31.4 points she was more than 40 points behind the final qualification and still 13.6 points behind the penultimate, who, however, had crashed twice. Despite the performance shown, she was disappointed not to have made it to the final. Swaney, who had realized her Olympic dream through crowdfunding , was nevertheless honored to have participated as one of 24 athletes. While her competitors gave her backing, her performance also received some negative reactions. A Hungarian TV broadcaster even saw the introduction of the amateur violate national pride.

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total halfpipe
space Points space Points
2013/14 181. 3 39. 16
2015/16 160. 2.2 31. 11
2016/17 157. 4th 32. 20th

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruey Yen: Liz Swaney, Freestyle Skiing, Hungary - PyeongChang 2018 Calympian. Vox Media , February 18, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b c d Jack Tarrant: Freestyle skiing: Heaven is a halfpipe for unconventional Swaney. Reuters , February 19, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Des Bieler: How a skier managed to compete at the Olympics despite not being very good. The Washington Post , February 20, 2018, accessed February 20, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Olympia is amazed at Elizabeth Swaney. (No longer available online.) ORF , February 19, 2018, archived from the original on February 20, 2018 ; accessed on February 20, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sport.orf.at
personal data
SURNAME Swaney, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Swaney, Elizabeth Marian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-Hungarian freestyle skier
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley