Despite being very different in terms of body shape, gender, ethnicity and energy systems being used in their chosen sports, Nick Willis and Valerie Adams both had something in common: the burden of the hopes of the nation to carry.
The weight of expectation was so great that they both discovered, despite micro-managing everything possible, sometimes things just don't go well on the day. Such is the nature of sport, and why we are entranced by it during the Olympic Games. It is reality TV at its best, with extreme highs and lows, despair one moment and over-the-top elation the next.
On their day to shine in the Olympic arena, their legs and apparatus were too heavy to hurl forward, despite every cell in their being willing them to go faster and further than they have before.
In hindsight, there were scenarios and dramas that could have been avoided, and many are left feeling disappointed and gutted that New Zealand didn't come away with another gold medal for Adams and a medal of some shade or other for New Zealand's flagbearer Willis.
Should we as a nation be disappointed in their efforts?
Do we have any right to be gutted?
We can empathise with the athletes in the emotions they are feeling, but we have no right to jump up and down and expect answers when it is obvious both athletes did everything they could to reach their peak for the London Games.
We may jump up and down and yell at the screen from the comfort of our lounges, or we may be fortunate enough to be there in person. Either way, we are not them and they are not us. We get so absorbed in the rhetoric of "we've won another medal" and "we are doing well at the Olympics compared to our neighbours the Australians" that we forget we are not the ones competing. I think we have more right to ask questions of the administrators with regards to stuffing up entry forms for the most important sporting event.
Someone dropped the baton, and if dodging the blame was an Olympic event, Kereyn Smith, Dave Currie and Raylene Bates would be in the running for a place on the winner's podium.
Adams has every right to feel gutted by her silver medal. As a three-time world champion, two-time Commonwealth and world indoor champion, who has felt the glory of an Olympic gold medal around her neck, and thrown a personal best of 21.24m just a year ago of course you'd be gutted. The administrative blunder just added insult to injury and surely must raise many "what if" questions for her, her coach and her manager. What would she have been capable of if it hadn't happened?
Willis will also be wondering what his performance would have been like if he'd been part of the slower semifinals race.
His frank assessment of his performance was refreshing, and he, like Adams, will be dealing with disappointment in his own way. As spectators who have had very little impact on their build-up to the Games, we should let these athletes feel how they want to feel and stop telling them to be proud of what they've achieved and to put on a brave face and, ironically, adopt a British "stiff upper lip". As elite athletes who have achieved and sacrificed so much, they can cry and rant and rave as much as they like.
