The unpredictable nature of snowboard cross predictably reared its head in the women's event as Torah Bright and Belle Brockhoff both had crashes to finish well short of a medal at the Winter Olympics.
The sometimes chaotic race-based event, which sees six riders go head-to-head on a steep course with banked turns and jumps, had its share of casualties and the Australians were high on that list.
Bright and Brockhoff were seeded together in the first heat, both pushing their limits as they sought to advance to the semi-finals.
The halfpipe silver medallist was the first to go down - entirely of her own accord.
But she seemed more concerned that she'd wiped out Brockhoff.
"My heart sunk, in my head I was like `I have just taken out my teammate ... I am going down in the history books as the worst Australian ever'," Bright said.
"I was absolutely devastated and when I fell and looked up and she was gone off and still on her feet I breathed a sigh of relief."
Brockhoff rode a shrewd race and progressed through to the last 12.
She was quick out of the blocks, flitting between second and third and looked in a good position to move through to the decider when disaster struck.
Canadian Dominique Maltais squeezed the Victorian out of position, making her lose her edge.
And from there the Olympic campaign of Australia's most outspoken Winter Olympian, who has pushed gay and lesbian rights in the lead up to her first Games, was over.
"I am going to write her (Maltais) a very strongly-worded letter," Brockhoff joked about the incident.
"She just took a really tight line. She's very aggressive on course. A little bit of a flick of her board and hit my board and I just crashed."
Brockhoff was hoping she could recover and re-enter the race but it wasn't to be.
She went on to finish second in the consolation final for an overall finish of eighth.
Bright was officially 18th.
The final was won by the most dominant rider of the day, Czech Eva Samkova.
The sometimes cruel mature of the sport was brought to bear with Maltais coming second.
France's Chloe Trespeuch in third.
