Fourth-place finishers grapple with the edge of glory

LIVIGNO, Italy Feb 19 : For the world's elite athletes, failing to grasp an Olympic medal hurts - and especially so for the person who finishes fourth, among the very best in the world but just one step short of the podium.

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

At the Milano Cortina Games, German snowboarder Annika Morgan stood in the bronze medal position with one rider to go. That rider was New Zealand powerhouse Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who put down a stellar slopestyle run that bounced Morgan into fourth.

"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 fourth. 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 fourth-place finish in the super‑G, finishing a mere 0.03 seconds slower than the bronze medallist.

Allegre also came in fourth 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 Bormio race. 

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

Americans Frankie del Duca and Joshua Williamson found themselves in the familiar fourth-place spot behind three teams from Germany at the end of the two-man bobsleigh. They also finished fourth in the two- and four-man events at the World