Elizabeth Swaney defied the odds to participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Born and raised in the United States, the skier earned an Olympics spot by representing Hungary. Per Reuters' Jack Tarrant, the 33-year-old "qualified to represent Hungary through her maternal grandparents after previously competing for Venezuela in other winter sports."
According to her official Olympic profile page, Swaney finished higher than 28th in only one of her five World Cup competitions this season. So how did she earn a spot in the freestyle halfpipe qualifying event?
As International Ski Federation judge Steele Spence told Jason Blevins of the Denver Post (via Sporting News' Marcus DiNitto), Swaney exploited a loophole by accumulating appearances and often simply avoiding a last-place finish for a country with few Olympic hopefuls in the sport.