Onlookers could only wince, grimace and sympathise with British medal hope Elise Christie as she failed in her fifth consecutive Olympic short track race on Saturday - injuring her ankle in the process.
But is her run of crashes and disqualifications down to bad luck, poor tactics, or just the sheer brutality of the sport?
Australian Steven Bradbury, watching from his home in Brisbane, knew exactly what the three-time world champion was going through.
He suffered disqualifications at two consecutive Games and had to overcome a broken neck and losing four litres of blood on the ice.
Yet he was able to recover from all that to win what is now dubbed as the 'luckiest' gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
"People in the sport understand the nature of short track and situations like this, as Elise has found out, are common," said 44-year-old Bradbury.
"You have to think that there's an upside to come for her. There just has to be. Her ability is incredible.
"She's not the smartest racer in the world, that's a given. Sometimes she does dumb things out there on the ice and puts herself in positions that she doesn't need to.
"But her story is one of more bad luck than I've ever seen in the sport. And for me, I've had my share of bad luck."
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