10 Summer Sports That I, A Winter Olympian, Actually Love

Competing when it's warm sounds pretty darn good.

I'm Elizabeth, and I competed at the 2018 Olympics in the women’s freestyle ski halfpipe.

Elizabeth Swaney

Imagine this: It's winter 2018. I had finally arrived in front of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Village gates, my dream since age 7, and immediately felt two good things and two weird things: excitement and wonder, but also bitter cold and uncertainty...should I have chosen a summer sport instead?

Elizabeth Swaney

I had just stepped off the cozy bus that had taken us across the Korean countryside, from Seoul to PyeongChang.

I grabbed my taller-than-me ski bag from the bus which was always stuffed heavy with multiple puffy jackets, gloves, poles, ski wax, and other clothing layers, and also picked up my ski boot bag, also similarly stuffed. Every winter athlete needs large and heavy amounts of clothing to first survive conditions that are cold, snowy, icy, or a combination of all three, secondly to compete in these conditions, and thirdly, to try to win a medal.

I then strapped my somehow 30-pound ski boot backpack on and balanced my 45-pound ski bag on my right shoulder, now making me 75 pounds heavier. That weight wasn’t even counting my everyday clothing in my other bags that I somehow had to carry through the three layers of high Olympic security to get to my dorm. I quickly thought back to my track and field days, when all I needed were track spikes, a shirt, and shorts to compete.

My coaches for years had also just messaged me that they wouldn’t be coaching me at the Olympics, adding emotional weight to the physical weight.

Although I was just starting to experience the first few minutes of my lifelong goal, the Winter Olympics, the place I had dreamt of starting at age 7, I began to wonder, during those first few minutes in the Olympic Village, if I should have dreamt instead of competing on the beach rather than the snow, on a sunny track rather than the in chilly mountains, or in a sport that didn’t require to carry almost the weight of another person in equipment to compete.

When our hands are numb in the windchill, and cheeks get the first taste of frostbite, and we're wearing too many layers of jackets to feel sexy, here are 12 Summer Olympic sports we Winter Olympians may have wished we had trained for instead:

1. Beach Volleyball

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When the cold becomes unbearable, we all dream of being on the beach and enveloped by the sand's warmth. Plus, how satisfying would it be for us to wear minimal clothing and show off our strong and hot bodies that we’ve worked so hard for? We would also get to play a ball sport; balls are pretty absent in Winter Olympic sports unless you count snowball fights.

2. Track and Field: Sprints

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Whereas Winter Winter Olympians need to deal with the unpredictability of ice and snow conditions, the track is pretty consistent and rarely changes. A 100-meter dash is over in less time than it takes us to make two ski turns or complete two figure skating triple loops. Also, wearing track “spikes” sounds a lot cooler than wearing ski or snowboard “boots." I first started training for sprints as cross-training for skeleton, my first international winter sport. I then coached a track and field program, and now I run 5ks and marathons for fun. I'm relieved I can carry everything i need to compete in a carry-on bag.

3. Gymnastics

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Gymnastics and freestyle skiing and snowboarding have some similarities as they both involve acrobatic movements. However, in gymnastics, we would get to land on a soft and springy floor or cushy mat. The hard-packed snow and ice are typically very unforgiving to us meaning that a wrong landing could be painful. As for the gymnastics leotards, those are way cooler than the snow jackets we wear. With sparkles and patterns, and skin-tight spandex to display our muscles, like beach volleyball we would also get to show our strength and style to the world.

4. Surfing

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Snowboarding was inspired by surfing, and the original of anything always deserves lots of respect. Hanging out on the beach under palm trees instead of waiting in a cramped ski lodge is also a dream for skiers and snowboarders. The closest thing for us snowsport athletes get to surfing is once a year during the annual pond skimming competition, when we glide across a melted ice puddle and pretend we’re pro surfers riding the waves.

5. Diving

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Diving has a relatively forgiving landing surface: the water. When I trained for freestyle skiing during the summers, we were kind of like divers: we would train on the water ramps, where we would ski on big, astroturf-like ramps, jump a few stories in the air, perform one or more spins or tricks, then land in the water. However during competition time in winter, which is when it counts, everything needs to be landed on hard-packed snow or a snow-ice combination, especially in the halfpipe, when icier conditions can be better. Ouch!

6. Equestrian

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Wouldn’t it be cool to ride a horse through the snow and have it be a Winter Olympic sport, like Budweiser Clydesdale racing? Our skis, snowboards, or skates are our training partners, but how awesome would it be to have a horse as a training partner instead? Unfortunately, snow equestrian hasn’t been invented yet.

7. Rowing

Elizabeth Swaney

Before I competed in skiing and skeleton, I competed in rowing, both as a rower and coxswain.

In rowing, you get to sync with several other rowers in the boat, dip your oars in the water at the same time, swing your bodies in unison, then help the boat glide through the water together, which is a magical feeling. Before I competed in skiing and skeleton, I competed in rowing, first as a rower in high school and then as a coxswain later in high school, college, and grad school. As a coxswain, I loved helping set the race plan, encouraging my rowers, and guiding and steering the boat through racing and practices. Toward the end of my competition days in rowing, I began to wonder if steering a crew shell or boat was like steering a bobsled. I was then recruited to a different sport on an ice track: skeleton. Though I loved my skeleton competition days, I’ll always miss my time on the water.

8. Skateboarding

Elizabeth Swaney

A skateboarding park is like a more efficient and condensed terrain park for snowboards and skiers. Everything is relatively close to everything else. In skiing and snowboarding, we need to take a chairlift to get everywhere; in skateboarding, we would just need to simply walk a few feet to get to the next feature. Plus, there is no need to wear special ski boots, snowboard boots, or skates. As skateboarders, we would wear the shoes that are used in everyday life.

9. Golf

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Imagine rolling green hills instead of rolling snowy mountains or sheets of ice. All are beautiful, but when we’re tired of the cold and need a break from the blizzards surrounding us or in those too-chilly ice rinks for days, we’ve all talked about playing golf when the winter season is over. In addition, we would get to wear fun, classic outfits, ride around in golf carts, and drink beverages in between holes.

10. Triathlon, Modern Pentathlon, Decathlon

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Bigger is better. In the Winter Olympics we have some dual competitions like biathlon, which is skiing and shooting, and Nordic combined, which is ski jumping and cross country. 

Why only two? The summer Olympics gets to have bigger multi-sport events that involve three or more disciplines like the triathlon: swimming, biking, and running; modern pentathlon: fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, shooting, and running; and decathlon: ten track and field disciplines. What if we were to have the Winter Olympic Decathlon where we created new sports, including cross-country ski dancing, and snowball shot put?