Gary and Angelica di Silvestri of Dominica have been called “olympic tourists” (and worse) for doing pretty much exactly what has been described in this thread to get to Sochi this year.
I think I’ve driven past their house.
The Chinese women’s curling team that won the world championship a couple years ago, but hasn’t done as well recently had to go to a qualifying tournament to get into the Olympics. Only countries that have done well in recent world tournaments get automatic entries.