Yuri Kadobnov / AFP - Getty Images

Michelle Kwan admitted Sunday that "taking myself off the team is the most difficult decision I've ever had to make, but it's the right decision. The injury prevents me from skating my best and I've said all along that if I couldn't skate to the level that I expected from myself I'd withdraw from the team."

But on the world’s biggest stage, the images were far more stark. Kwan was the gold medal favorite in 1998 in Nagano and skated well but was reduced to tears when Tara Lipinski skated a magical performance to snatch the gold away from her.

Four years later in Salt Lake City, she sobbed so much her makeup came off after winning only bronze while youngster Sarah Hughes got the gold. The next night more tears streamed down her face as she wore a gold costume and performed to the song “Fields of Gold” in the exhibition final.

Unfortunately for Kwan, she will be remembered more for what she didn’t do than what she did. Like Ernie Banks, who never got into a World Series, or Dan Marino, who made the Hall of Fame without ever winning a Super Bowl, she will be the great athlete who couldn’t win when it counted most.

In her heart, Kwan still believed she could if given one last chance in Turin. In her mind, she must have known that this story wasn’t going to have a happy ending.

Kwan finally listened to her inner voices of doubt in the early morning darkness nearly a half a world away from her California home. She came to the realization, however sad, that it was over.

There will be no Olympic gold for Michelle Kwan.

Not here. Not ever.