Aussie snowboarder's TV tears after Winter Olympics heartbreak

Australian Olympian Belle Belle Brockhoff fell agonisingly short of a medal finish in the women's snowboard cross on Wednesday night, after a remarkable recovery from a disastrous time trial.

The 29-year-old paid the price for a poor start in the final, playing catch-up for most of the course before crossing the line in fourth place.

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Brockhoff was devastated by the result but took it in stride, describing herself as a 'loser' in intervoews after the race.

It was an unfair assessment of her own performance, which came after battling back from hitting her head in a fall during practice, as well as scraping into the finals as the 18th seed thanks to her poor time trial run.

Brockhoff dodged elimination multiple times to win through to the final, a significant achievement in its own right.

Despite fourth being her best finish in her three Games appearances, she wasn't satisfied.

"Fourth is s***-house, fourth sucks s*** - you're the loser of the big final," Brockhoff said.

"You miss the podium by this much."

Fans were quick to show their support for the Victorian, who came from behind to finish second in a thrilling quarter final before managing to avoid a falling race leader to again claim a stunning second place in the semi-final, earning her a final run and a shot at gold.

Unfortunately, one last supreme effort proved just beyond her in the final, Brockhoff unable to overcome a slow start to finish fourth.

"That was my worst time-trial result ever in the sport, even when I first started I had a better time-trial result so I really had to dig deep and put a lot of fight into it and that's what I did so I was happy to be in the final, even if it was fourth place," she said.

"I hate that place so much but I will take it."

Belle Brockhoff heartbroken after Winter Olympics fourth place

American Lindsey Jacobellis won the gold medal - her country's first at the Beijing Games - ahead of Chloe Trespeuch of France, with Meryeta Odine of Canada taking the bronze.

Until Wednesday, Jacobellis was best known for taking a massive lead into the final jump at the 2006 Turin Games.

She pulled on her board in a showboat move as she went over the crest, then fell and had to settle for silver.

This time, the four-time world champion went hard all the way to the line to finally win gold.

After finishing second in her 1/8 final, Brockhoff came from nowhere to also finish second in her quarter-final heat, missing out on the win by just .01 of a second after trailing her three competitors for most of the race.

There was more drama in Brockhoff's semi-final when Julia Pereira de Sousa of France, the 2018 Olympic silver medallist, crashed in front of her.

Brockhoff narrowly avoided being taken down as well and finished second to qualifying for the medal decider, which was missing defending Olympic champion Italian Michela Moiola and reigning world champion Charlotte Banks of Great Britain who had been eliminated.

Fellow Australian Josie Baff was eliminated when she took third in a separate 1/8 final heat.

Competing at her first Olympics, Baff was 14th in the first qualifying round .

"It was definitely a little bit disappointing," the 19-year-old said.

"I was riding really well in training and looking forward to putting that into practice and I really felt today was the day when things were going to work for me but unfortunately not."

Brockhoff and PyeongChang silver medallist Jarryd Hughes are the reigning world champions in the mixed team event, which will make its Olympic debut in Beijing.

With AAP

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