I'm trying not to stay up half the night watching the Olympics but it's tempting. Now that I've returned my DVD recorder I have to watch live although there is in fact very good highlights coverage during the following day.

I was glued to the ladies Snowboard Cross this afternoon even though I'd seen it all last night. The leaps and jumps they do are breathtaking and gloriously elegant in slow motion repeats. Having perfected what a friend described as my survival skiing technique which consisted in getting down the run in one piece with no trace of elegance and not necessarily always upright, I never had the motivation to try repeating the process on a board. But watching those girls and the men the day before I wish I had. Mind you I'd have been limited to jumps centimetres high compared to their metre high ones.

One of the things that makes it a better spectator sport compared to most downhill events is that, at least in the later stages, you are watching a race and not one individual competing against the clock.

Britain didn't have a single competitor in the men's event but in the women's Zoe Gilbert finished a very creditable 8th and would have done even better if she had not injured a knee in the later stages. British snowsport athletes have an uphill struggle when it comes to training and preparation and now the funding organization has gone bust.

Drambuie used to sponsor Scottish skiers, maybe one of the off-shore financial outfits that operate out of the Isle of Man where Zoe comes from could spare a few bob from their bonuses. Unless the fact that she was sporting a Poker Stars bunnet was not a personal fashion statement as it is when I wear mine on the golf course but an indication that she's already spoken for.