For the world’s elite athletes, not grasping an Olympic medal hurts — especially for the person who finishes 4th, among the very best in the world but just one step short of the podium.

Years of grueling physical work and mental preparation can end with missing out on the medal places and the global recognition they bring.

At the Milan Cortina Games, German snowboarder Annika Morgan stood in the bronze medal position with one rider to go. That rider was New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who put down a stellar slopestyle run that pushed Morgan into 4th.

“It sucks a lot. That’s all I can say,” Morgan said as she stood on the slopes in the Alpine town of Livigno. “Someone has to be 4th. And it’s me.”

Adding insult to injury, she was wearing a bib with her assigned number for the race — four.

“I ended up with my bib number,” she said. “Worst place to be, but whatever.”

French Alpine skier Nils Allegre struggled to accept his 4th-place finish in the super-G, finishing just 0.03 seconds slower than the bronze medalist.

Allegre also came in 4th in this season’s downhill and super-G World Cup races in Val Gardena, and in the Val Gardena downhill last season.

“I’m gutted because my career has often been like this so far: Other guys always seem to have the hundredths on their side, and I never do,” he said after his race in Bormio.

“Three hundredths in a lifetime is nothing — and today it would have made all the difference.”

Americans Frank Del Duca and Josh Williamson found themselves in the familiar 4th-place spot behind three teams from Germany at the end of the two-man bobsled. They also finished 4th in the two- and four-man events at the 2025 World Championships.

“There’s a lot of positives to take from this, but it’s really hard as well to be so close, so often,” Del Duca said, adding he wanted a medal “for our support system (team) as much, if not more than, for us.”

British freeskier Kirsty Muir had to absorb the 4th-place disappointment twice — in slopestyle and big air.

“It’s just a bittersweet feeling,” Muir said with tears in her eyes after her slopestyle finish.

“I’m so stoked with how I skied tonight. I put it all on the line in the third jump. I went for it, and I can’t be mad about that,” she said. “It’s a bit of a nasty position again to be in 4th, but I really do feel proud of my skiing.”

A reporter asked if she could take pride in being the 4th-best female skier in the world in her events.

“I will, I will,” she said. “A lot of people say that, and in the moment, it’s hard to take in, just because obviously the only ones that get recognized are the ones on the podium.”