The thing is that Michaela's resignation from competition is a lot less "final" than the word implies. She is young, intelligent, good-looking (despite taking after her dad), has a career ahead of her not just teaching but potentially coaching/training, she has many fruitful, productive and hopefully happy years ahead of her. I can't therefore work up any strong sense of loss there. Whereas with the miners the potential for loss was not only enormous, it was a statistical certainty. It is this reversal of the laws of statistics in the face of a nation's dogged persistence, combined with the sense of regaining what was effectively already lost in many people's minds, that heightened the drama in Chile.

Plus Breeze would have thumped me and called me names ("old satyr" comes to mind). What am I saying - Michaela herself would have thumped me even more resoundingly! Seriously though, she's a lovely lass (I met her briefly) and Breezy deserves to be very proud of her.