I never thought I would find myself saying this, but here goes.

Give Jana Rawlinson a break.

Seriously, I was on the 'down with Jana' bandwagon as much as anyone with the 'will she, won’t she' drama which surrounded Athens.

This time round though, she has conducted herself in a mature, professional manner and it is up to us to just get over it.

She’s not going to do her run and jump thing at Beijing.

She’s injured.

End of story.

Yes, last time there were tears, tantrums and in the end a big fat fizzle of a result, but since then Jana has manned up and gotten on with the job.

She knows she was a drama queen the last time round and this time she has nipped all of that in the bud.

But we are still going bonkers about it.

And apart from everything else – the last time this happened the girl was only 21-years-old.

So maybe she was a bit of a sook last time.

But she was also young.

And maybe she didn’t have to have the surgery to correct the problem with her toe earlier this year.

But her doctor has come out and said it looked like the best option at the time.

And maybe she shouldn’t have pushed herself so hard in training.

But this is a woman who went for a 20-minute run the day she gave birth, so she probably isn’t the type to take it easy.

Is she paying the price for past mistakes?

Yes.

Should we just let her get on with it?

Also yes.

Judging by the response of people this time round, even if she had won gold we wouldn’t have been happy for her anyway so what’s the problem?

It’s not as if she doesn’t have the goods – she has proved herself at the Worlds more than once.

We expect our athletes to conform to all sorts of images the moment they pull on the green and gold and when they don’t – well, off with their heads!

Jana hasn’t punched anyone, she hasn’t gotten drunk and caused a public disturbance, she hasn’t been involved with known gangsters, been done for drink-driving, been caught with drugs or fired a gun in the Olympic village.

Her biggest crime is having a bit of attitude.

And while we can forgive our sporting stars almost anything – having ‘tude seems to be completely beyond the pale.

Especially if you are a woman.

I’m sure there are guys out there who compete in the same team and can’t stand each other.

But if women don’t like each other – as in the case of Jana and Tamsyn Lewis – well there must be something wrong with one of them.

And Tamsyn’s prettier, so it must be Jana with the problem.

If two guy athletes have a problem with each other it is called healthy competition.

When two female athletes have a problem with each other it is called a cat fight.

Jana says she’ll be back for 2012 and London.

She probably will be.

But really, why should it bother us if she competes or not?