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| YANQING, China — One by one they zigzagged down the mountain, near the end of a line of nearly 90 racers in a snowy giant slalom, looking more like ski hobbyists on a weekend jaunt than world-class competitors. | 中国延庆——他们在参加高山滑雪大回转比赛的近90名选手中最后出发，一个接一个地沿着曲折的雪道从山上滑下，看上去更像是周末出门滑雪的爱好者，而不是世界级的运动员。 |
| Many of the skiers were first-time Olympians, brought together by one very pertinent thing they have in common: a shortage of snow in the countries they are representing in Beijing, including Jamaica, Ghana, India, East Timor and Morocco. | 他们中的许多人都是首次参加冬季奥运会，一个与冰雪运动相关的共同点将他们带到这里：他们所代表的国家包括牙买加、加纳、印度、东帝汶和摩洛哥，这些国家都少雪。 |
| “I always say, ‘There is a first league, and there is a second league. We are, for sure, the second league,’” said Carlos Maeder, 43, who is representing Ghana and is the oldest skier at this year’s Games. “Maybe even the third league,” he added, chuckling. | “我一直说，‘有一级联赛，也有二级联赛。我们当然是二级联赛选手，’”43岁的卡洛斯·马埃德说，他代表加纳参赛，是今年冬奥会上年龄最大的滑雪选手。“也许甚至是三级联赛选手，”他笑着补充道。 |
| Mr. Maeder, who is ranked 2,443rd in the world in giant slalom, was able to make it to the Olympics in part because of a change in qualifying criteria aimed at producing a more diverse field of competitors. | 马埃德在大回转项目的世界排名为2443位，他能够参加本届冬奥会的部分原因是，为了让参赛运动员更多元化，参赛资格的标准发生了变化。 |
| Keenly aware that skiing has been dominated by athletes from richer, colder countries, the International Olympic Committee and skiing’s world governing body have tried to make the sport more inclusive through a quota system that lowers the threshold of qualification. | 国际奥林匹克委会和滑雪运动的世界管理机构深知，滑雪运动一直被来自更富裕、气候更寒冷国家的运动员主导。这两个国际组织试图通过一个降低参赛门槛的配额制度，来让这项运动更具包容性。 |
| But that decision has put a bitter edge on what was supposed to be a well-intentioned effort at diversity. It has garnered growing scrutiny about whether the skiers tried to game a system constructed to give them the best possible chance of qualifying and has raised questions about whether the Olympics can be both an elite competition and an inclusive, global sports festival. | 但这个决定给原本出于好意的多元化努力添加了苦涩的一面。这种做法已受到越来越多的审视，人们想知道这些滑雪选手是否钻了为他们获得参赛资格提供最佳可能的制度的空子，也引发了人们对奥运会能否既是一场精英赛事、又是包容性的全球体育盛会的质疑。 |
| Critics have accused the skiers of manipulating three races that they organized and participated in during the final weeks of the Olympic qualification period. The International Ski Federation said that it was reviewing those races, held in December and January, and that the results could lead to penalties for anyone who had broken its rules. | 批评者指责这些滑雪选手操纵了他们在奥运会预选赛最后几周组织和参加的三场比赛。国际滑雪联合会表示，正在调查去年12月和今年1月举行的几场比赛，调查结果可能会导致所有违反联合会规则的人受到处罚。 |
| It declined to specify which races it was examining, though there were no more than four held during that period. It also asked the I.O.C. to adjust its quota system to include more spots for qualified competitive skiers. This year, Austria received two additional spots, while Germany and France each received one. | 该机构拒绝透露正在调查哪几场比赛，虽然在该时间段举行的比赛不超过四场。该机构还要求国际奥委会调整其配额制度，为符合要求的有竞争力的滑雪运动员提供更多的参赛名额。今年，奥地利得到了两个额外的参赛名额，德国和法国各得到了一个额外名额。 |
| “I was never going to be competitive,” said Benjamin Alexander, a 38-year-old Jamaican skier and former D.J. He finished last in the giant slalom in a race on Sunday. “The people I was competing against started skiing at 2 and had their first race training at 4 or 5,” he said. | “我永远无法与他们竞争，”38岁的牙买加滑雪选手、当过DJ的本杰明·亚历山大说。他在周日的一轮大回转比赛中排名最后。“我的竞争对手们两岁开始滑雪，四五岁时就参加了第一次比赛训练，”他说。 |
| Mr. Alexander started skiing when he was 32. | 亚历山大32岁时才开始滑雪。 |
| The dust-up in Beijing can trace its roots to after the 2018 Winter Olympics, when the I.O.C. cut the number of Alpine skiers allowed to participate in the Games to 306 from 320. To ensure gender equity, it said each country could send no more than 11 men or 11 women. Those limits, combined with the looser qualifying standards, have prompted some traditional winter sports powerhouses, such as Austria, to complain. | 北京的这场风波可以追溯到2018年冬奥会之后，当时国际奥委会将有资格参加冬奥会的高山滑雪运动员的人数从320名减少到306名。为了确保性别平等，每个国家只能派不超过11名男性或11名女性。这些限制，加上更松的资格赛标准，已引起奥地利等一些传统的冬季运动强国的不满。 |
| Even though the field has become more diverse — a core goal of the I.O.C. — many elite skiers who rely on the sport for a livelihood now say they are being left out. That can potentially affect their sponsorships, the main source of income for any top professional skier. | 虽然参加滑雪比赛的选手已变得更加多元化（这是国际奥委会的一个核心目标），但许多以这项运动为生的精英滑雪运动员现在说，他们受到了排斥。这可能会影响到他们得到的赞助，赞助是所有顶级专业滑雪运动员的主要收入来源。 |
| But some say that loss is a gain for countries like Haiti and Saudi Arabia. Both nations made their Winter Games debuts in Beijing, fielding Alpine skiers. The Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand also sent teams of skiers to the Olympics. | 但有些人说，精英的损失对海地和沙特阿拉伯这样的国家来说是收获。这两个国家都是在北京首次参加了冬奥会，也都派了高山滑雪运动员。菲律宾、马来西亚和泰国也派了滑雪队参加本届冬奥会。 |
| In order to get here, the so-called exotics, as several of these skiers call themselves, obtained enough qualifying points from lower-tier races. To do so, some of the skiers organized their own races, which guaranteed less competition. | 为了来这里参赛，这些所谓的“异国情调滑雪者”（其中几人就是这样称呼自己的）在级别较低的比赛中获得了足够的资格积分。为了积够分，一些滑雪者组织了自己的赛事，保证了更少的竞争。 |
| Those races, held in places like Liechtenstein, Montenegro and Dubai, drew the attention of Federiga Bindi, a professor of political science at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the director of a ski academy. Last month, she wrote an essay for Ski Racing Media pointing out that the Liechtenstein race had only 10 competitors. | 这些在列支敦士登、黑山和迪拜等地举行的比赛，引起了罗马托尔韦加塔大学政治学教授费德丽加·宾迪的注意，她也是一所滑雪学校的校长。上个月，她在Ski Racing Media上发表了一篇文章，指出只有10名选手参加了列支敦士登的滑雪比赛。 |
| A separate report that was filed to the International Ski Federation and reviewed by The New York Times suggested that the races were fixed, and that skiers with a history of high performance had “significantly underperformed” to allow athletes from small nations to earn the necessary qualifying points to go to the Olympics. | 《纽约时报》看到的另一份提交给国际滑雪联合会的报告暗示，有人操纵了那几场比赛，为了让来自小国的运动员获得参加奥运会所需的资格积分，有好成绩史的滑雪选手在比赛中有“明显不理想的表现”。 |
| One of those elite athletes, according to the report, was Cristian Javier Simari Birkner, a four-time Olympian from Argentina. | 据该报告称，其中一名精英运动员是参加过四届冬奥会的阿根廷选手克里斯蒂安·哈维尔·西马里·伯克纳。 |
| When reached by telephone, Mr. Simari Birkner, who raced in Montenegro and Liechtenstein, said: “For sure, I did not perform 110 percent. But that doesn’t mean I slowed down on purpose or anything like that.” He said that his travel and lodging costs were paid for by the race organizers, as in the World Cup and Europe races, but that he was not paid for his participation. | 参加了黑山和列支敦士登比赛的西马里·伯克纳接到记者打去的电话后说：“没错，我的表现没达到110%。但这并不意味着我故意放慢了速度。”他说，他的旅费和住宿费是由比赛组织者支付的，世界滑雪锦标赛和欧洲滑雪锦标赛也是这样做的，但他参加比赛没有拿报酬。 |
| Mr. Simari Birkner blamed the pushback on the system that had been put in place. “The Olympic Committee and the International Ski Federation — they should figure out if they want to have an international event, with 80, 90 or 120 countries, or if they want to get an event where they get six countries to race and it’s finished,” he said. | 西马里·伯克纳把不满归咎于目前实行的制度。他说：“奥委会和国际滑雪联合会应该弄明白，它们是想举办一场有80、90或120个国家参加的国际赛事呢，还是想举办一场六个国家的运动员参赛就完事了的赛事。” |
| The International Ski Federation’s investigation into these races was first reported by The Washington Post. For the athletes from nations with little snow, the fallout at the Games has been dispiriting. | 国际滑雪联合会调查那几场比赛的消息是《华盛顿邮报》首先报道的。对那些来自很少下雪的国家的运动员来说，本届冬奥会的这些余波令他们沮丧。 |
| “There is a lot of negative press out there, and what that tells us is there are a lot of countries that don’t want participation from other nations at this moment,” said Mr. Alexander, who made history on Sunday as the first Alpine skier representing Jamaica at the Olympics. | “有很多负面报道，这告诉我们，此刻有很多国家不希望其他国家参加冬奥会，”亚历山大说。他在周日创造了历史，成为首位参加奥运会高山滑雪比赛的牙买加运动员。 |
| He denied that the qualifying races, several of which he helped organize, were manipulated. “If the Olympics is just about the 10 countries who suck up all the medals, then the other 190 countries get bored, and that is bad for all of us,” he said. | 他否认自己参加过的比赛（其中几场是他帮助组织的）被人操纵。“如果奥运会只是关于那10个包揽了奖牌的国家，其他190个国家都会觉得无聊，这对我们所有人都不是好事，”他说。 |
| The backlash has cast a cloud over what was supposed to be a feel-good story. | 对参赛资格的质疑给一个本来让人愉快的故事蒙上了阴影。 |
| In August 2020, Yohan Goutt Goncalves, a skier from East Timor, contacted Mr. Alexander on Instagram after reading a profile about him. “Just read your story, man,” Mr. Goutt Goncalves wrote. “Good luck. Let’s bring small nations to the Olympics.” | 2020年8月，来自东帝汶的滑雪运动员尤汉·古特·冈卡尔维斯读了一篇关于亚历山大的人物报道后，在Instagram上联系了亚历山大。“刚读了你的故事，伙计，”古特·冈卡尔维斯写道。“祝你好运。让我们一起把小国带到奥运会上去吧。” |
| Mr. Goutt Goncalves, a three-time Olympian, created a WhatsApp group last year, pulling together all the skiers he had met representing the tropics. He cheekily named it “Athletes from Exotic Nations.” | 参加过三届奥运会的古特·冈卡尔维斯去年建了一个WhatsApp群，把他遇到过的所有代表热带国家参赛的滑雪运动员拉了进来。他还不恭地给这个群起了“来自异国情调国家运动员”的名字。 |
| When Mr. Goutt Goncalves competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics, it was the first time that East Timor, one of the world’s poorest countries, had fielded an athlete for the Games. Mr. Goutt Goncalves said he chose to represent the Southeast Asian nation because he wanted to raise the profile of the country where his mother was born. | 东帝汶是世界上最贫穷的国家之一，古特·冈卡尔维斯参加2014年冬奥会时，是该国首次派出运动员参加冬奥会。古特·冈卡尔维斯说，他之选择代表这个东南亚国家参赛，是因为他想提高该国的国际形象，那是他母亲出生的地方。 |
| Most of the athletes in the WhatsApp group come from similarly small nations. They pay for their own travel, splitting the costs among one another. | 那个WhatsApp群中的大多数运动员都来自类似的小国。他们自己支付旅费，相互帮助分担费用。 |
| “If you have money, you can have staff and go training everywhere in the world,” said Bogdan Gligor, who coaches Mr. Goutt Goncalves. He spent a recent Tuesday morning lugging the bags of three skiers up the mountains in Yanqing, where Alpine sports are being held. | “如果你有钱，你可以雇人，去世界各地训练，”古特·冈卡尔维斯的教练博格丹·格利戈尔说。最近一个周二的上午，他花时间把三名滑雪选手的背包吃力地搬运到了延庆的山上，那是举行高山滑雪比赛的地方。 |
| Many in the group say the odds have long been stacked against them. Nearly all these skiers have full-time jobs. Mr. Maeder, the skier from Ghana, said he took four or five years to pursue his dream of reaching the Olympics without a coach or the support of a national federation. | 这个群里的许多人说，长期以来，他们一直面临巨大困难。这些滑雪选手中几乎所有人都有全职工作。来自加纳的滑雪选手马埃德说，在没有教练、没有全国滑雪联合会支持的情况下，他为追求参加奥运会的梦想花了四五年的时间。 |
| “It means a lot to raise the flag for Ghana as a winter sport nation,” he said. He and the others know they have no chance of winning a medal, but to them, it does not matter. | “让加纳的国旗以冬季运动参与国的身份出现在奥运会上意义重大，”马埃德说。他和其他人都知道，他们没有赢得奖牌的可能，但对他们来说，那并不重要。 |
| Yassine Aouich, a skier from Morocco who made his Olympic debut on Sunday, said he had skied for only about two weeks last year because the coronavirus pandemic prevented him from going to France, where he usually trains. | 来自摩洛哥的滑雪选手亚辛·奥伊什周日首次参加了奥运会比赛。他说，他去年的滑雪时间大约只有两周，因为新冠病毒疫情让他无法去法国，那是他通常训练的地方。 |
| “You know, the qualification for us is — it’s like the gold medal,” he said. | “你知道吗，对我们来说，获得参赛资格就像拿了金牌，”他说。 |
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