Weightlifter flips while diver tumbles

Competitors at the Olympics have all sorts of ups and downs, some are spectacular and others just end up being embarrassing.

At one end of the spectrum is weightlifter Aurimas Didzbalis who, jubilant with his bronze, sent the crowd and commentators into raptures by pulling off a nonchalant back flip on the stage.

After failing in his lift for for a silver medal, but, assured of a bronze, he stood up and, easy as you like, flipped backwards.

It was a remarkable feat for a man so musclebound it looked like he could struggle to walk, let alone pull off such nimble manoeuvre.

"I only do them when I win a medal," he said of the backflip during a press conference afterward.

"If I had finished fourth, you wouldn’t have seen it.

It begs the question: what would he have done if he'd won?

Russian diver Nadezhda Bazhina could probably have done with some of the Lithuanian weightlifter's agility in her disastrous tilt at the three-metre springboard.

Instead of soaring into the air for a three-and-a-half somersault, the European champ slipped and went tumbling into the water to record one of the worst dives in recent Olympic memory.

The dive earned her a 0.000 and saw her finish in 26th spot in the preliminary rounds.