Mellisa Hollingsworth just made one mistake.
The Canadian favourite, who was second overall after her third run, dropped to fifth in her final run and missed the podium in the Women’s skeleton event on Friday.
After one of the best start times of these Olympics on her fourth and final run, she came out of turn three hard and hit both walls on the straightaway.
This proved to be costly for the 2006 bronze medallist and 2010 World Cup champion.
Her fourth run time was 54.44 seconds bringing her overall time to 3:36.60.
“It’s really hard,” a visibly distraught Hollingsworth told CTV. “I feel like I’ve let my entire country down.”
The winning overall time of 3:35.64 belonged to Amy Williams of Great Britain.
In the third run she laid down a track record of 53.68 seconds on her way to winning gold.
This is Britain’s first medal of these Olympics and the country’s first individual winter Olympic gold medal since the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
The win marks the first time Williams has ever won a skeleton event.
The 27-year-old was a silver medallist at last year’s World Championship as well as at the World Cup event on this track last season.
German sliders took the rest of the podium. Kerstin Szymkowiak, who was third place going into the final outing, won the silver medal and Anja Huber moved from fifth place to the bronze medal position with the second fastest time of the fourth run.
Szymkowiak was just one one-hundredth of a second behind Hollingsworth after three runs but put down a time of 54.03 on her final run down the track which would be enough to secure the silver medal.
American Noelle Pikus-Pace, narrowly missed the podium in fourth place.
Canadian Amy Gough, fell to seventh in the final standings with an overall time of 3:37.01.
The other Canadian competitor, Michelle Kelly, finished in 13th place, the same place she sat after the third run.
Williams’ gold medal celebrations may be disrupted as issues with the legality of her helmet continue to arise.
The U.S. team appealed that her helmet has aerodynamic features that are illegal after Thursday’s runs, during which Williams broke the track record.
Officials threw out the initial appeal but according to the Associated Press, a second appeal has been made by several nations including the U.S.
The international skeleton and bobsleigh governing body has not yet commented.
