Tanja Frieden Is The Female Steven Bradbury - Thanks To Lindsey Jacobellis

One sport well worth watching at the Winter Olympics is the snowboard cross. The men's event was on Friday night and last night was the women's. A spectacular event with fabulous camerawork. It's fast and furious and has some close racing and plenty of spills.

Watching the final last night was so funny, and tragic. Like I always say - One man's tragedy is another man's comedy (I've just started saying that). Lindsey Jacobellis from the USA was leading all the way until she tried to do a maneouvre to show off to the crowd with only two jumps to go. She should have waited until she had won the gold because she fell on her backside and was passed by Switzerland's Tanga Frieden.

How do I come to the conclusion that Frieden is the female Steven Bradbury? In Salt Lake City 2002 Bradbury won a gold medal for Australia in short track speed skating when all of his competitors fell over in sight of the finish line. Rather bemused he crossed the line and won the gold. Last night Maelle Ricker crashed out early in the race, Dominque Maltais went through the safety fence and then Jacobellis fell on her arse.

Jacobellis will have to put up with jokes for the rest of her life about throwing away a gold medal. In fact, I think she will be more well-known because of it. They say that you never remember who got second place but after viewing this tragic comedy that can only change. The commentators were already adding her gold medal to the US tally and mentioning their domination of the sport just as it happened.

I'm not sure why I found it so funny as I can feel for her. The ridicule that she will face. I bet Dick Cheney is glad that she will take him out of the headlines and give comedians someone else to poke fun at.