Niall Treacy was left with more questions than answers after a suffering a crash in the men's 1,000m qualifiers in Milan.
The short track speed skater took to the ice in his best and favourite event to kick off his Olympic campaign at Milano Cortina 2026.
The 25-year-old won bronze in the 1,000m at the 2024 European Championships and has enjoyed some of his World Cup best results over the distance throughout his career.
Despite having also qualified in the 500m and 1,500m, it's the one slap bang in the middle that is his bread and butter and it was all going so well for the Brit before falling foul to the fickle nature of the sport.
Treacy is ranked 13th in the world in the event and was up against one of the big medal favourites Steven Dubois of Canada in his heat, with the top two finishers automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The Brit started well and edged into the lead early on to take the race out before Dubois moved up on the inside and both collided on the corner for a double take out.
The umpires ruling determined the crash as 'shared responsibility' meaning that no penalty cards were given and both athletes missed out on progressing to the next round.
"It's obviously a little bit frustrating to have that fall with shared responsibility," he said.
"That was the race plan I wanted to do and go out and set a hard pace. But that's the way the 1000 ends.
"It's the Olympic Games, you don't want to be pushed around when it gets like this stage, definitely (not) in these early races.
"We both went for a move. Maybe he thought that he had more speed, but I felt like he was a little bit too tight and a little bit too late on the overtake."
Despite preferring the 1,000m, Treacy's best result at the recent 2026 European Championships came in another event.
The Brit came within just milliseconds of 1,500m bronze in the Netherlands, finishing 0.046 seconds behind Italy's Thomas Nadalini.
The longer distance is his next chance in Milan, returning to the ice on the 14th February with the opportunity of redemption on his mind.
"I've got a few days now so I can dust myself back off and come back out for the 1,500m," he said.
"I might need to close off the overtake earlier on and give myself run. It's just frustrating that it happened there."