Sport's greatest chokes

The German word schadenfreude, or pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others, was obviously thought up by a ghoulish sports fan. Let’s face it, most sports lovers can’t tear their eyes away from slow-motion replays of car accidents, heavy physical hits - and the tragi-comedy of near-certainties contriving to lose the unlosable through their own inability to handle big-occasion pressure. Here are six of sport's best chokes.

1. Jana Novotna loses the 1994 women’s Wimbledon final to Steffi Graf

Novotna had Graf completely at her mercy in the final, leading 6-7 6-1 4-1 and with a service point to go 5-1 up in the decider. To say the Czech player then tightened up is the mother of all understatements. She proceeded to double-fault and, in one of the more grotesque cases of choking in sports history, lost the game and the following four in 10 minutes to gift the German the title. Even the hardest of hearts had to go out to her as she broke down during the presentation ceremony.

2. Vera Nikolic abandons the 800m semi-final in the 1968 Olympics

Hungarian Nikolic set the world record for the 800m in July 1968, and was subsequently raised to heroine status by the media in Hungary, who became convinced winning the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was a mere formality. So confident was the Yugoslav Government of her success, they prepared a commemorative postage stamp to be issued following her victory. Unfortunately, the pressure was too much for the young runner and after 300m of her Olympic semi-final, she suddenly ‘took a turn’ and ran right out of the stadium.

3. New York Yankees lose the 2004 American League Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox

After bolting to a 3-0 lead against the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees were already looking to baseball’s World Series, even more so when they held a one-run lead in the ninth inning of game four. But the Yankees conspired to lose that game plus the next three (including two in extra innings), while their arch rivals the Sox salted the Yankees’ wound by going on to win their first World Series since 1918 and breaking an 86-year-old curse.

4. Jean Van de Velde blows the 1999 British Open

The Frenchman arrived at the last hole at Carnoustie needing only a double-bogey six to win the tournament. He had played brilliant golf for most of the week and had birdied the 18th in two prior rounds. Van de Velde pushed his drive way out to the right, hit his second shot into the grandstands and a terrible lie and found the nasty Barry Burn water hazard with his third. He waded calf deep in the water before eventually deciding to take a drop. He hit his fifth shot into the greenside bunker and had to hole from the sand to take the title. He didn't and just managed a triple-bogey seven, dropping him into a three-way playoff which, it goes without saying, he lost.

5. Paula Radcliffe loses it in the 2004 Olympic marathon

World record holder, winner of the New York and London titles - in 2004 Radcliffe had done it all and was as hot as a favourite can be heading into that year’s Olympic marathon. Sadly, the stage was too big and she retired in tears with just six kilometres to go ... then repeated the performance five days later in the 10,000 metres.

6. Jimmy White fails (again) in the World Snooker Championship final

After years of dropping the big one, White was on the brink of finally being crowned king of snooker in 1994. Leading the final frame 37 points to 24 against his career nemesis Stephen Hendry, he inexplicably missed a bread-and-butter black most pub players wouldn’t think twice about potting. Commentator Dennis Taylor memorably observed: "Dear me, that was just a little bit of tension". Hendry got up from his chair and coolly cleared the table with a break of 58 to claim the title and shatter eternal bridesmaid White’s dream once again.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of BigPond Sport.

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