Medal position until the last bit before the finish - then Ebba Andersson was passed by one skier after another, which resulted in an eighth place in the final Olympic three-mile.
Late on Monday night, Andersson landed on Swedish soil and the disappointment remains great.
- But now it's just a matter of biting into the sour apple and realizing that it belongs to sports, life goes on in the end, she says.
- The medal I fought for yesterday blew away there at the end when there were really strong winds.
"Hard to reason"
The flight home was long, but now she is finally home.
- Right now it feels really nice, it is usually the case that during a championship, even if you have been away for a long time, you do not really allow yourself to have any homesickness until you have finished competing - to focus on what to do there and then in place.
But when you reached the finish line yesterday, you just wanted to go home and leave the place as soon as possible (laughs).
The 24-year-old continues:
- Right there and then in the moment, I did everything I could, however, if I am to look back in the rearview mirror ... yes, I do not know what could have done so that it was a different outcome.
Possibly that I went in for a ski change, maybe that the cluster caught me earlier, that I was involved and fought about it in another way - or that I managed to stay away from the cluster anyway.
I do not know.
- It's so hard to reason how to do right there at the moment, because you do not know - and that's what is a bit the charm of sports, that everything should really work out.
Yesterday it did so almost all the way, but not really.
Despite the meager medal miss, a chance for revenge awaits already this weekend - when the World Cup in Lahti, Finland, takes place.
- It was not immediately the case that you got less motivation after how yesterday ended, Andersson says.