Russia's troubled teen figure skater Kamila Valieva missed out on a second Olympic gold as the drugs scandal finally took its toll.
The pressure of the past week told in her performance in the women's individual competition. She fell three times during her dance to Ravel's 'Bolero' to finish fourth, despite being red hot favourite to win.
It meant the 15-year-old - dubbed Miss Perfect - lost out on her chance of a second Olympic title.
Many of her opponents had claimed that she should not have been allowed to compete at all.
The teen prodigy covered her face at the end of her routine, clearly upset with the level of her performance, fighting back tears as the crowds cheered.
In stark contrast, her Russian team mate Anna Shcherbakova, 17, had punched the air as she completed her routine to move into first place with 255.95 and take gold.
Seventeen-year-old Alexandra Trusova, also at the Moscow Sambo-70 club of Valieva's renowned coach Eteri Tutberidze, scored a 177.13 season's best in the free skating programme to take the silver medal spot with 251.73.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto took bronze on 233.13, while Valieva scored 224.09 in fourth.
Wearing red gloves, with a red and black sequined outfit, Valieva again received an ovation from a socially-distanced crowd at Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium.
She had taken the lead in the competition here on Tuesday despite an emotionally-charged performance, with tears at the end.
Olympic organisers warned there would be no medal ceremony due to Valieva's Christmas Day doping test if she finished on the podium. The test found tiny traces of heart drug trimetazidine in her urine.
The result sparked fury from the US team and the World Anti Doping Agency who said that she should not have been allowed to compete.
The team ceremony is also being delayed as a result of the test, with Olympic chiefs confirming Valieva will have an 'asterisk' next to her name in the record books until the drug test issue is resolved.
But the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) "categorically disagreed" with any asterisk placed next to the results.
They have sent a letter to the International Skating Union asking that the team results, where the Russians won gold, should stand regardless of the outcome of Valieva's case.
The star was allowed to compete, but her case is ongoing and it could mean that her results – and any medals – are stripped from her and the Russia ROC in the months ahead.
US skater Karen Chen, who competed today and won silver in the team competition, said: "I was looking forward to standing on the podium with my amazing team mates.
"I would have loved to have done that in our medal ceremony outfits - even if we did not get our medals."
The American skating chief Adam Rippon coaches US skater Mariah Bell, 25, who scored 136.92 today to take an early lead with 202.3. He said that medallists were being robbed "by people who do not want to play fair continuously, over and over and over, and who shouldn’t be here.”
He told the New York Post: "It is shocking. It ruins the integrity of the Olympics.
"I don't think in the history of the Olympics somebody with a positive test has been allowed to compete."
Russia was banned from international competition for four years due to 'state-sponsored' doping. That was cut on appeal to two years, ending in December this year.
But Valieva, the current European champion, went into the dance programme in first place after the short programme in the Beijing Capital Stadium on Tuesday.
She had been granted permission to compete less than 48 hours earlier.
It later emerged that she had been up until 3am on Monday, giving an impassioned statement to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following her failed drug test.
Today, she returned to the ice with the eyes of the world again upon her.
Her coaching team remains under investigation for their role in the scandal.
The supremely talented youngster, ranked No 1 in the world, was unable to take Gold as the pressure on her young shoulders finally took its toll.
She faced her rival, fellow Russian Anna Shcherbakova, for the Olympic title.
She included three quad jumps in her free skate programme - the move never seen before she completed the move at this Olympics in the team programme.
There was also a triple axel, a triple loop, a fly camel spin, a triple flip and triple toe loop, a triple Lutz with a step sequence and two spins at the end of her routine.
She set a standard of which only can only be matched by her compatriots, Shcherbakova and fourth-placed Alexandra Trusova.
Before the competition finale, opponents and coaches from rival nations have attacked the decision to let her compete.
Not only will the medals not be presented but the IOC said the asterisk would be applied beside her name in the record books.
“There will be an asterisk about the results because they will be preliminary,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed.
Before the competition began, US athletes whose Olympic medal is on hold because of her failed drugs test met International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach.
Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee to victory in the team event at Beijing 2022, with the United States second and Japan third.
Mr Adams confirmed a meeting had taken place between the US skaters and Bach, but not with the Japanese because they "told us they fully accept the IOC's approach".
The US medal winners have apparently been offered Olympic torches for now instead of medals. US skater Karen Chan, who won gold in the team competition, said: "I was looking forward to standing on the podium with my amazing team mates. I would have loved to have done that in our medal ceremony outfits."
Adams said he believed Bach, who won a fencing gold in 1976, initiated the meeting because as a "former athlete and Olympian himself he wanted to understand how they felt".
