Kamila Valieva was heaving. Not crying. Heaving. This was pain, full-on, full-emotion, pain. This was humiliation. This was devastation. This was everything.
She came to Beijing at 15 years old to win the hearts of skating fans around the world and win a gold medal in women's individual figure skating. She wound up the villain of the Olympics, the poster girl for doping, cheating and Russian moral bankruptcy.
And then, finally, she was a floundering failure on ice.
The girl who never lost, who never fell, who never did anything but soar higher and spin straighter than any skater ever, came in fourth.