Mikaela Shiffrin is on the brink of sensationally withdrawing from the Beijing Winter Olympics after failing to finish a second alpine skiing race in a row.
The 26-year-old double Olympic champion arrived in China ready to compete in five events, and was widely seen as the favourite to take gold in both the giant and women's slalom.
However, after crashing out of the former event this week, she made another critical early error in the women's slalom on Wednesday, and again failed to finish.
Still, the American star seemingly has the chance to bounce back in Friday's super G event, although immediately after the event, a clearly despondent Shiffrin questioned the worth of her continuing at these Games.
"I have some team-mates who are really fast and we have the athletes who can fill the spaces, so if I am going to ski out on the fifth gate, what's the point?" she told reporters.
"I have never been in this position before and I don't know how to handle it.
"I just feel pretty low right now."
Immediately after her fall, Shiffrin had appeared disconsolate as she sat alone at the side of the piste, and her elimination paved the way for world number one Petra Vlhova to claim gold.
Vlhova, of Slovakia, was lying down in eighth after the first run, but executed a brilliant second run to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
Austrian world champion Katharina Liensberger took silver, and Swiss Wendy Holdener got the bronze.
Britain's Charlie Guest, who had been 15th after the first run, fell back into 21st after an error-strewn second run.
Shiffrin meanwhile, who admitted her plan to go "full gas" had backfired, added she felt her displays were the culmination of a lot of wasted preparation.
"It's probably a culmination of the other day and today. It feels like a really big let down.
"It's a let down of everything, letting down myself, letting down other people.
"We are not done yet but GS [giant slalom] and slalom, those were my biggest focuses. It really feels like a lot of work for nothing."
Aged just 18, Shiffrin took gold in the slalom event in Sochi 2014, and then four years later in Pyeongchang, triumphed in the giant slalom before taking silver in the combined event.
