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Slovenia's cross-country skier Petra Majdic said Wednesday's bronze in the women's sprint classic was like an Olympic "gold with little diamonds".

In the warm up, Petra fell down a three-meter slope and onto some rocks, breaking one ski and both poles and scraping up the right side of her torso and broken her ribs - four of them.

It looked like Petra's Olympic games dream wasn't meant to be. "Before the first race, I was thinking 'it's over, it's over' because I could barely move."

"I was in pain and some volunteers helped me out. They wanted to take me to the medical centre, but I yelled, 'take me to the start", said Petra. Having turned down a pain-killing injection which would have hindered her movement, Madjic gritted her teeth and was in clear discomfort after each of the four rounds on the 1.4km-long course.

"I was screaming my way around the course," Majdic said. "It was the first time all the coaches from all the nations were cheering for me."

With each round, she got stronger – though each time she collapsed in pain at the finish line and had to be helped up.

But in the final, the old Petra reappeared on the final hill and she managed to nip Swede Anna Olsson in the homestretch in front of an exuberant crowd.

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