It's difficult to put into words what a fourth place finish at the Olympics feels like, but Kirsty Muir is assured in knowing that she left everything out on the slopes of Livigno.
The 21-year-old suffered a heart-breaking fourth place in the women's freestyle skiing slopestyle, missing out on bronze to Canada's Megan Oldham by just 0.41 points.
It's a pain few can relate to, having improved on her Olympic performance from four years ago but ultimately facing disappointment she had never encountered before.
It meant that the skier was understandably holding back tears post-competition but held her head high with a knowledge that better days are ahead, even if it doesn't quite feel like it right now.
"I'm obviously a bit sad," she said. "I'm not disappointed but it's just a tough place.
"I had a few difficulties in the first two runs and I got a bit annoyed at myself after my second.
"I think with [the third run] I knew that I wanted to leave it all out there which is why I went with a different grab, so it was tough when it wasn't working out for me. I'm proud that I still put one down.
"But yeah, it's hard. Today I was really hoping for a podium. I mean you can never say that because you just want to be thinking about the run that you want to put down.
"But I've felt in a lot better place with my skiing and felt like I had a lot more chance."
Muir excelled on the rails on her first run before a mishap in section five saw her have to abandon hopes of a top score.
It meant that the pressure was on, and with her mute grab not quite performing on cue, she was forced to switch up her plans and just leave it all out there, with her third and best run clocking a score of 76.05.
"It was my decision to change," she said. "On the second jump I was trying for a mute grab in my double. It just makes it a little bit harder and I was really pushing for that extra boost that that might give me but today it slipped away from me.
"So I went back to safety to just get a run down and bet my fortune on the last jump because that's one of my biggest tricks. So I knew that would be quite good in my run."
At Beijing 2022, Muir finished fifth in the same event and was nothing short of ecstatic at her result on Olympic debut. Four years later, improvement doesn't quite hit the same, showing first-hand just how far she has come as a competitor in the last few seasons.
But with her family and boyfriend on hand at the bottom of the course to hug her tight, Muir is ready to put her slopestyle anguish behind her and move forward, with the big air now looming in the near distance and providing another Olympic opportunity.
"My family's here and they were hugging me super tight," she said. "They're always saying how proud they are of me. They don't care what happens today as long as I'm okay.
"I think I just need to have a moment to process this. I don't want to dwell on it too much.
"I've got at least a day or so until I hit the big air. So I'm going to go through this, accept it and try and find the positives that I can from it and then completely reset because the bigger is just a completely different competition."
Sportsbeat 2026