Kirsty Muir finishes fourth in Olympic slopestyle, the toughest place of all

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) - It's true at every Olympics, in every event. There is gold, silver, bronze, and heartbreak.

Fourth place is the cruelest place to finish at the Games, and nothing told the story better at the Milan Cortina Games than the tears flowing out of British freeskier Kirsty Muir, who was edged off the podium by a mere .41 points in the slopestyle finals on Monday.

"I'll be proud of myself in a minute," Muir said, as she made her tear-stained way through the long interview area at the bottom of the hill. "But I'm in a bit of a hole right now."

The 21-year-old Muir was coming in off a win in the X Games last month, with every reason to believe she could contend for a medal in an event highlighted by Mathilde Gremaud, who won her second straight gold medal, and Eileen Gu, who won her second straight silver.

A missed grab here. A little wobble there. Muir finished fifth at the Beijing Games four years ago, so this was an improvement. But not as big a leap as she'd hoped for.

"The last time, I was 17, I put the tricks down to come fifth, the best I'd ever done them," she said. "I was so proud of myself. It's hard to say how I'm feeling right now. I've got a lot to process."