The Vancouver Games were lit up by a televisual spectacular that encompassed the madness of Wacky Races, the thrills of Gladiators, the spills of It's A Knockout and the bravery of the Grand National – and all on skis.
Effectively, a snowy obstacl
e course with huge jumps, crazy sharp turns and four-person races that provided some pulsating entertainment made its Olympic bow in Vancouver.
Forget the tedium of ice chess that is sometimes known as curling and ignore the fixed grins and bad outfits of ice dancing, ski cross was the real event that captured the imagination for those of us who would not normally have bothered with the Winter Olympics.
And while the south coast is not renowned for producing Olympic skiers, Great Britain's representative Sarah Sauvey is based in Fareham.
Sadly for the 26-year-old – who was born in Australia but has British parents – her Olympic bid came to an end before the racing stage as she came up just short in qualifying.
The top 32 progressed from the time trial into the quarter-finals and Sauvey's 34th place was just outside the cut-off point.
But Sauvey, who clocked one minute 24.52 seconds on the Cypress Mountain course, admitted she was disappointed with her performance – despite reaching the pinnacle of her sporting career.
Sauvey explained: 'Along the bottom of the track I didn't take the most direct line.
'In training runs I was making the landings really nicely but in that run I managed to hit the backside of the triple and double, so I was disappointed.
'The most disappointing thing is my training all week had been amazing, every run since my first run had been really good and that's the first run I didn't make the landings properly.
'I don't know if it was the nerves, but I was really hoping to qualify so I was disappointed with that run.
'The whole Olympic experience has been amazing.
'I've really enjoyed being here. You work your whole sporting life to get here and it's bigger and better than you could imagine when you do get here.'
Canadian Ashleigh McIvor took the inaugural gold and Sauvey is now determined to continue to boost ski cross' popularity.
Sauvey said: 'I would have just liked to produce a result so that I could have shown everyone in the UK what ski cross really is.
'Getting here was the achievement and the most intense period of my life but I was here to represent and I thought I could do it. I was hoping to pick up a good result so I'm disappointed.
'I'll keep on going for the rest of the season and complete the World Cup season.
'I was hoping to produce a result that would help us to get the support to compete with the big nations.
'We're a talented bunch and I really believe if we can just get a little bit of support then we can really do something in the future.'
