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Hacking the Olympics
175 points by jbaudanza on Oct 16, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 71 comments
I've been following one of my friends for the past few months as he is trying to pursue his largest childhood dream of becoming an Olympian.

What makes this interesting is that he's a 36 year old tech guy. He's worked in the video game and web industry for the past 15 years. Knowing him, it would be a stretch to call him an athlete when he started this.

He's approached this in a very cool manner. Instead of brute force like most athletes, he did his research. He went out and found all the sports that had more open qualifications. This led him to narrow it down to 4 sports of Bobsled, Luge, Downhill Skiing and Cross-Country Skiing.

Subsequently after trying a few of them he picked Cross-Country Skiing. He needed to get on the snow asap so he let his lease up in San Francisco and moved to Northern Finland above the Arctic to chase the snow. Subsequently this summer he flew around to wherever there was snow and it took him to Austria, New Zealand and Australia.

He knew that he would never qualify as a US citizen. So he thought to himself… maybe I can become a citizen of a tropical country. After a huge email and snail mail writing campaign to embassies and olympic committees he was able to get interest from a few. One agreed to do it and as of August he became a citizen of Colombia!

So I'd like to present you with, Paul, the first ever Colombian Cross-Country skier.

He released a trailer video yesterday and also put up a Facebook page. I personally find his persistence in pursing his dream inspiring. Please support him be sharing and liking.

https://www.facebook.com/teampaul2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO2VSdncp1o




This reminds me of Philip Boit.

In 1996, Nike decided on a sports experiment / PR stunt - it would pay for two Kenyan long distance runners, Philip Kimely Boit and Henry Bitok, to train in cross-country skiing for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The two Kenyans have never skiied before in their lives - heck, they've never even seen snow until they arrived in Finland to train.

Bitok never qualified for the race, but Boit did. He cross-country skiied in the 10-kilometer classic in Nagano ... and came in dead last. The awards ceremony for the race had to be delayed because the winner, Norwegian cross-country skier and legend in the sport Bjørn Dæhlie, insisted on waiting 20 minutes for Boit to cross the finish line so he could cheer Boit on!


Interesting, never heard of this before. I would have expected endurance running to translate to endurance skiing better, but I don't know how good runners they were. Even top 1% is great but probably not Olympics.


I've done a fair amount of cross-country skiing, and am a locally-competitive distance runner. My guess is that if you've never even seen snow, your skiing efficiency will be poor enough that you can't finish (probably because "what's the point", not because you can't make the distance) or end up last against good skiers. Give it a few years, maybe your form will improve enough to be competitive. But it's not like running where you mostly just run.


It doesn't really translate well because an important aspect of cross-country skiing is the technique, and without proper technique you dispel too much energy to be competitive.


This is cool, but I'm surprised it's not much more difficult in skiing even Olympics since the IOC have been trying to stamp out no-hopers ever since Britain's "Eddie the Eagle" became legendary for his amateurish ski-jump attempts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%22The_Eagle%22_Edwards

Eddie was a much more accomplished athlete than the Congoese swimmer who could barely get the end of the pool, and probably a better skier than your friend, but the IOC took a dim view of enthusiastic amateurs hurtling down ski-slopes in front of millions of viewers that were genuinely pleased just to see him survive the jump, and introduced qualification requirements. I'm surprised they haven't introduced them for dangerous sports like the luge as well. At least your friend had the sense to pick cross country skiing

The way to get an Olympic medal is to be naturally gifted and train every day from teens onwards, like one of my brother's friends did...

I still regret not learning to play handball in approx 2010 since the Great Britain felt compelled to enter a team at their home Olympics despite it being about the only sport British people don't play.


To qualify for the olympics, Paul needs to come within 10 mins of the top finishing skier in an international event. I am rooting for him!


This is harder than it sounds.


More like completely impossible for a 36 year old that doesn't have decades of previous cross country skiing or athletic experience. It is a hugely demanding physical sport and the difference between a top athlete and a proficient amateur is gigantic. He would be better off trying to get bobsled team in a tropical country off the ground and practice sprinting with a sled for a couple of years. You still won't stand a chance at winning but you might qualify.


Could you do it in a sprint event (where a typical race only is a few minutes long)?


OK, so let's break this down. How does a person get to the Olympics?

First they have to get a spot on an Olympic team. Since you asked about track and field, let's consider that.

First you have to go through the "trials" for your country. When you run a sanctioned race (i.e., a real competitive race with timekeeping, not a 5K beer run or whatever) if you run it fast enough you might post a qualifying time.

http://www.usatf.org/events/2012/OlympicTrials-TF/entry/qual...

The A time is the "A"utomatic, "you're allowed to come to the trials" time. The B is the "B"ackup - we'll invite you to the trials if you are consistently hitting B times and there aren't enough A people.

If you post an A time (or enough B times), you'll be able to attend the US Olympics track and field trials. You go there and run like a mad man or woman against the best athletes in the country. If you are fast enough, congrats - you're going to the Olympics!

But how fast is "fast enough"?

---

A 5K is a pretty common race, right? How fast can you do it? I'm lucky if I can do it in 30 minutes, but I'm a big blubbery programmer.

The B time for a 5K is 13:50.

Let's look at some times for 5Ks. Here's a big one with lots of finishers:

http://www.albanyrunningexchange.org/results/search.php?ID=3...

The fastest runners aren't even close.

---

OK, not a 5K. Let's consider another data point. The NYC & Boston Marathons attract major talent.

http://www.runnersworld.com/races/tougher-standards-for-2016...

There aren't even B standards for men. You have to run a marathon in 2:18 to go to the trials.

http://raceday.baa.org/top-finishers.html http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/Results.htm

The top 15 are already almost falling outside the qualifying. Do you think any of your friends can finish in the top 15 of the Boston Marathon? I know a guy who has been running all his life, who trained his ass off and ran the Boston Marathon in 2:50 a few years ago - he finished in the top one percent for the race, but that is nowhere near Olympic trial times.

---

What about a nice sprint? The 800M A time is 1:46.50, and the B time is 1:48.30. Not too long, or so it seems...

http://www.tfrrs.org/results/31188_1946804.html

The best college athletes in the country aren't even automatically qualifying. But hey, ~a man and a dream~, right?

---

This entire idea is beyond ludicrous. No one's going to "hack their way to the Olympics", especially a 36 year old that is nowhere near their peak physical condition & has limited experience in the sport.


Where did you get track and field from? Since everything is about Cross-Country Skiing in this post, I kept myself on the topic.

Sprint is one of six types of skiing in the Olympic Games.


Ah, so it is! I guess my mind saw 'sprint' and went to what was familiar to me.

That said, there is use in comparing something that (I'd wager!) many people know (running) to something far fewer people know(skiing times). Frankly I didn't know how hard 'finishing within 10 minutes' would be; but now I've got something to compare with.

And what that illustrates is that coming anywhere near a qualifying time is extremely difficult.


He isn't trying to qualify for the US team, there will be a minimum standard that he will have to achieve but he isn't competing for a place with anyone else from the same country.

I know several people who have competed at the Winter Olympics in Alpine Skiing for countries that don't have a tradition in the sport.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-country_skiing_at_the_201...

He's got to get 300 FIS points by Jan 20, 2014 to get the B standard in order to qualify for Colombia.

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/607.html?sector=CC&listid=3000...

If that's up to date, I don't see that he has any.


I believe the season doesn't start until 29 November[1]

The method of calculating scoring is available at [2]. It doesn't make much sense to me though - it appears the second place competitor only gets 0.53 points?

(Now I know way more about cross country skiing than I did this morning)

[1] http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/data/document/media-informati...

[2] http://www.fis-ski.com/data/document/fis-points-rules-2012-2...


The FIS website will be up to date, he does show up in a Biographies search.

http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/cross-country/competit...


Could you elaborate on "naturally gifted"?


Genetics


The hubris of the poster and his friend is offensive on its face.

Athletes do not make it to the Olympics through "brute force." Exercise is the least part of Olympic training. Olympic-caliber athletes spend years practicing their specific discipline(s), developing everything from the mechanics of their movement to the interplay of their body with the environment.

Cross-country skiing isn't just something you can "pick up" a few months before the Games and hope to have a shot. It is a grueling physically demanding sport that requires tremendous endurance, technical, and mental preparation.

Also--simply being a citizen of a low-population country is not sufficient to qualify for the Olympics (winter or summer). The Olympics are a competition for the best athletes in the sport--novelty acts don't just get to waltz in. Prior to each Olympics, each sport sets forth the qualifying standards (time, place in qualifying races, etc.). Even the Jamaican bobsled team had to qualify for the Olympics.


"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_creed#Motto)

I say let him have his games - it's not for us to shit on other people's dreams.


He meant brute force in its qualifying strategy, like a brute force solving algorithm. Athletes train very hard and smart in their sport, but generally don't consider the sport's popularity and what country to play for.


Great stories have unusual starts and paths. Olympic Games history is full of successes and failures, all with a story behind, and that is what makes Olympics interesting.

Paul has already his story raving up for him. It is clear he knows what it takes, and has the determination to achieve it.


I'm afraid that you don't know who Paul is. As I was reading this I was saying to myself "That is so Paul... Oh, this is Paul :)"


Kathryn Bertine wrote a book and a series of articles for ESPN in which she tried to do something very similar. After trying several sports, she settled on cycling and gained citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.

More about her story at: http://espn.go.com/espnw/blogs/training/article/6177784/kath...


While I think this is really interesting, I do think it's slightly disrespectful of the sport and the Olympic games in general. Good luck getting rocked at the Olympics Paul!


From olympic.org:

>"What is Olympism?

"Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

"The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."

Sounds like what he is doing follows the spirit of Olympism.


"respect for universal fundamental ethical principles."

That's something I can get behind!


Why "slightly" disrespectful? He has his mind set to do something, and is preparing for it. Where do you see the problem?


Not the original poster, but here's my view:

He has set his mind to do something, and is preparing for it, but he has set his mind on competing in the Olympics any way he can. Most athletes have a goal of being the best they can in a sport, so that they can compete in the Olympics. I think there is a subtle difference between those, that could very well be called disrespectful to the Olympics.


Most athletes have a goal of being the best they can in a sport

I'm sure he's trying to be the best he can. Why do you think otherwise?

You didn't say "the best in the world," which would be out of reach even for the vast majority of athletes who do make it to the Olympics.


Are you sure he's trying to be the best he can? To me, it seems like he's just looking for the path of least resistance to participate in the Olympics and it has nothing to do with pushing his limits or excelling at something he cares about.


Did you watch the video? He appears to have dropped everything to train for the event. What more could he possibly do?

In case you are 22, let me tell you that at 35 he can't say "I'll train for five or ten years" - that training would be offset by his natural physical decline, and an increase in injuries.


I did watch the video, and no, I am not 22. I certainly would be more prone to agree that he's trying his best to make a documentary film. Simply 'dropping everything' to work on something doesn't automatically imply you're doing your best or even attempting to do so.


anybody can get on television if they really want to. an Olympian, so what? as someone who truly enjoys sports this is more annoying than anything. if he happened to be from Colombia, and had intentions to work hard an compete in cross country skiing it would be a great story. this is a mockery. also, real athletes change citizenship all the time to 'hack' for money/fame/international glory/sponsorships, this is nothing new.


Reminds me of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Moussambani


And similarly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%22The_Eagle%22_Edwards


Paul is awesome, and this is going to make a great documentary movie, whatever happens in the end. :) I believe he has a film crew following him around.


Will the ironic twist be that his real goal was to get in a documentary movie, and that pretending to want to be in the Olympics was just a "hack"?


Cool Runnings! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/


If he became a Colombian citizen, doesn't that mean he has voluntarily given up his U.S. citizenship? If he was born a US citizen, he just gave up one of the most valuable things anyone could have (and he got for free) just to pursue some pipe dream that still may not be realized. Talk about selling your birthright for a mess of pottage.


>Implying US citizenship is one of the most valuable things a person can have

This attitude makes me want to vomit. The American Exceptionalism attitude of "we're the best country on Earth" is the root of so many problems in today's world.

Please check your ego.


This is one of the most unthought-out posts I've ever seen on HN.

A) Please do some research and determine if in fact you must cede your US citizenship in order to become a Columbian citizen, plenty of countries have dual-citizenship agreements with the United States.

B) "gave up one of the most valuable things anyone could have" -- Please qualify that. What exactly does he get for his American citizenship? Sure he can live here without being hassled for a Visa, but if he's married to an American citizen, then that point is moot. This isn't Sweden where citizenship entitles one to heavily subsidized healthcare/childcare/higher education or Switzerland where citizens might soon be entitled to an unconditional income. The right to a social security number, some paltry Welfare income and the ability to tell your friends that you live in the "land of the free, home of the brave" is not exactly much of a birthright.


You do not have to give up your US citizenship to gain citizenship in another country. Even if you tell Colombia you will, at any point you can tell the US you never intended to cede citizenship, and you are an US Citizen again. It's VERY hard to lose citizenship (at least, as a natural born citizen).


The US permits dual citizenship, without treaties, by default. If a person is a US citizen, it does not recognize that person's other nationality. This simply means that it's ok if you are American and French, but the US treats you as American, and ignores the French bit..

My understanding when researching my own dual-citizenship is that you do not loose your American nationality when acquiring another nationality unless it was your intent to do so. Some countries require that you do this as a condition of nationalization (and some make exceptions for marriage, previous family ties, etc). So if you acquired a second nationality in a country that required this, knew that it meant giving up your US nationality, and willingly did so, you would no longer be American. Whether or you or the second country mention this to the US authorities is a totally separate matter, which can result in some interesting consequences later.

So if you need to renounce your previous citizenship as a condition of becoming, say, Columbian, then you would no longer be American (probably). Seeing as though he became Columbian through presidential decree, I'm guessing Columbia didn't make him do this. So now he is a dual-national, but from the US government's perspective he is American.


I've read a bit about cases where even if you renounce your US citizenship to the foreign government to become a new nationality, you can still tell the US Govt 'I was just kidding to those foreigners', and you're fine. It's only really an issue if you renounce it to the US Govt directly.


Yes I've also heard about people 'renouncing' their American nationality to foreign governments, not informing the US, keeping their passport, and not having any issues. I've also heard about people exaggerating facts to ensure their children (born abroad) obtain US citizenship (possible if the parents are American and have lived in the US for some amount of years - there's the catch).

The problem is that you really don't want to be in a limbo state with your citizenship. Some politicians or bureaucrats in the future could decide that there are a lot of people abroad collecting social security, let's audit their citizenship.


I'm not sure the IOC's requirements but I think you can compete for a country if you have just familial or racial ties with a country. Technically, the country just has to recognize you as theirs.


Some coworkers and I were talking about this exact same thing. In the last Winter Olympics Jon Montgomery won a gold metal in skeleton. In his interview he admitted that he wanted to be an Olympian, and that skeleton seemed like a way he could accomplish that. It's clever, very clever.


For me the accomplishment is to get Youtube username: http://www.youtube.com/user/paul/about Joined 25 Apr 2005

You were planning it all life long :)


Why is the tile called "Hacking"? It seems like everyone came here to hear some hacking but instead we get a story of someone trying to become an Olympian.


Reading the other posts, this doesn't seem to be the case. It is "hacking" because he was creative in how he pursued this goal while still working within the framework


Excuse my negativity here but I feel like the title should be clear: "My friend wants to become an Olympian". This title is as powerful as the current one. I will probably be interested in reading too if that title was used instead.

I am a guy interested in security and I am sensitive to the word "hacking". And I bet most of the HNers are interested in security too.

Given the whole PRISM thing about different government was intercepting communication during the London Olympic game, calling out "Hacking Olympic" would ring the bell. This is a sensitive title to me.

I had to read the text three times before I realized there was no hacking involved other than "being creative".

I will wish him best but please, OP, please, don't ever do this again. If I had to sound harsher, this is a marketing strategy. You have captured everyone's attention, but to me it's a bad attention.

Imagine everyone doing something "creative" and starts making a post starting with "Hacking...".

Sorry to be harsh, but this is how I feel.


You raise a fair point wrt the context of the word, but this isn't actually a new use of the word "hack" or "hacking" or "hacker". In fact, if you read this link by our beloved rms:

http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html

it would seem that the "old-school" (typically a more conservative) generation of hackers would not have found this use of the word "hack" incorrect at all.


My point is more about writing a title that is appropriate for the article intent. If everyone begins with "Hacking" then that kind of title will soon become meaningless. Kids are taught to write introduction with a question or a quote. Well, that doesn't always work out nicely, right?

Same here. This title is controversial to me and I think my point regarding London Olympic MITM is valid. Hence, please use something more descriptive.


You may want to ignore the website Lifehacker altogether then. You may also want to ignore applying to YC since they do ask about your history of hacking things IRL in non-tech related scenarios.


Read what I said before commenting.


Maybe you should give the OP some credit for hacking HN titles then.


My thoughts too.

It seems like almost any action performed by a human matches the vague definition of "hacking" sometimes used on HN.


This led him to narrow it down to 4 sports of Bobsled, Luge, Downhill Skiing and Cross-Country Skiing.


Is it really hacking the olypmics to pic the sport with the least skill/co-ordination possible? Why do people think this is anything other than narcissism? Nordic skiing from a tropical country?


I agree. If you'd trained your whole life you'd feel great with this guy besides you, who found a loophole to get it when he didn't deserve it. And I can't believe any country would let someone become a citizen just to do this. They want this guy representing their country? I'm sure the Colombians will so proud when they watch him compete.


Have you tried cross-country skiing, my friend?

Cross-country merely has the lowest risk of death of the four named. The skill and co-ordination needed to be good are dramatically higher than the skill and co-ordination needed to make it to the finish line intact.


Its clear that 'good' is not the criterion for performance. Its merely the only sport not likely to cause death or risk of permanant injury to a dilletante. Nordic is a bitch for Vo2 max, with our without technique, I'm not arguing the case thatway.[1] Its just lame to think one is being anything other than narcissitic to be an "olympian" in this way. Its just brute-forcing a rules book.

[1] But then again, so is walking (postholing) in soft snow, without skis.


Who knows why this guy wants to get into the Olympics, people want a lot of strange things. And maybe it is "narcissism" but I don't know that this is always a bad thing. As long as he is being honest and following the rules, I don't see what is wrong with what he was doing.

However like you, when I saw the title I expected him to adopt the smartest training regime and tactics while competing, thus enabling him to compete with younger fitter individuals. That would have been much more interesting.


I found this strange; as a former competitive alpine racer, there's really no way I can think you'd pick that as a sport to quickly gain entry in.

Nordic makes slightly more sense, but not really; they're some of the most fit people in the world and the technique is a large part of their speed. Out of shape and not knowing the technique? Not a good combination.


How does one just become a citizen of Columbia??


I guess he explained it a bit in this post : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=227560864073797&set=...


The story is like from a movie


I love this. Very cool.


Bravo good Paul


go Paul!!




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