And Bulgarian athlete Vania Stambolova has lived up to her surname at the London Olympics, stumbling over during the heats of the 400-metre hurdles and failing to finish the race.

In a nightmare start to the event, the 28-year-old tripped on the first jump and tumbled onto the track, dashing her hopes of a semi-final berth.

"Stambolova stumbled over that hurdle," commentators quipped during the official broadcast.

Her early exit was the talk of Twitter, where a screen grab of the official race result was being shared at a rapid rate.

Also copping it online was German back-flopping diver, aptly named Stephan Feck.

Competing in the men's three-metre springboard qualifying rounds on Monday night, Feck got one of his jumps all wrong and landed flat on the middle of his back.

The resounding splat prompted a loud groan from the crowd, while each judge scored him zero.

"Stephan Feck, erm, fecks up his dive. Ouch," tweeted Kerry Wilkinson, @kerrywk.

Another joked online: "You don't want to see the video of Impaildya in the pole vault."