Katie Ormerod may well have conquered her injury demons but the 24-year-old will leave Beijing knowing that the Olympics has not seen the best of her snowboarding.
Ormerod made her long-awaited Games debut in the Chinese capital after a broken heel in PyeongChang ruled her out on the cusp of the 2018 Games and required seven operations and 18 months of rehab to heal.
And four years later circumstances contrived against the Yorkshire star as she failed to get the necessary pace at the Shougang Big Air to land her tricks, falling twice in three jumps and finishing 25th.
“I don’t usually fall in Big Air,” said Ormerod, who began the Games by finishing 18th in slopestyle on Day 1.
“I knew I could do these tricks, these are the ones I usually do. I knew I needed the 900 to go into the finals but I struggled with it all week.
“I just couldn’t clear it very well, it’s been tough. When I first looked at (the ramp) I was so relieved, as it looked great. But then when I started training I was going as fast as I could and still struggling to get deep enough.
“At most Big Airs, you don’t have to worry about the in-run and the speed. I spoke to my coach and we did everything we could. I just wasn't quick enough and it’s a shame.”
Qualification concludes.
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 14, 2022
Katie Ormerod finishes 25th after three runs in the women's snowboard big air.#TeamGB | #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/3Yw7iimvb9
Aged 16, Ormerod shocked the planet by becoming the first female snowboarder in the world to land a double backflip.
She wanted to try a pair of 2.5 twists for the first time in Big Air here and was frustrated by the feeling that she had lost touch with the rest of the field due to circumstances out of her control.
“Women's snowboarding right now is so exciting to be a part of, it's progressing every year,” said Ormerod.
“It's exciting to be a part of that and I want to keep up with that and I have been doing. It takes a lot of hard work.
“That's why I was gutted - I wanted to showcase that new trick here. But because of how the training days went, I couldn't clear it and I'm a bit gutted about that.”
Ormerod has shown she has the ability to bounce back from anything after such a painful blow and believes she has learnt many things in the process.
She added: “To compete I had to overcome so many demons to even get to the start gate knowing that four years ago I almost ended my career in an accident at the Olympics.
"It was really challenging to do that and I worked so hard over the last four years to get back here and prove that it is possible to come back from a bad injury and realise my dream of competing at an Olympics.
“That's in the past now, it's part of my story and my history but I can move on fully now and look forward knowing I've done my best here.
“I was gutted not to make it through to the finals but I still tried my hardest."
Looking ahead to Milano Cortina 2026, Ormerod will be desperate to translate the form that made her Britain’s first snowboard Crystal Globe winner in 2019/20 into results on the biggest sporting stage of all.
“It's a shame that my results don't reflect the kind of snowboarding I do,” she explained.
"Just a few weeks ago, I came fourth against the same girls in slopestyle. It's just how it goes - some courses suit me better than others, sometimes it's just how it goes.
"I'm hoping that people will see the other results that I've got over the last four years and be proud of that as well."