Immediately after the last skater of the final crossed the finish line, the Swede left the finish area. Walter Wallberg went behind the big blue Olympic screens to hide from the TV cameras and to avoid seeing his rivals' cheers.
There he sank to his knees and hid his face in his gloves.
"I just wanted to disappear," he says.
The tears flowed.
The biggest emotions came when he met his parents and his girlfriend.
Then the tears flowed.
After the comforting hugs of his family, the 25-year-old fell to the snow. There he lay, amidst his family members and other spectators, trying to sort out his thoughts about what had just happened in Livigno.
It's been a hell of a year, he says.
The whole purpose of the day was to put down those rides that I know I can do. Then it wasn't enough all the way...
The journey to the Olympics in Italy has been long and tough. Wallberg had to cancel last season just after Christmas due to injuries. Instead of the World Cup, he had shoulder surgery. In addition, his knees and back have been a concern and his body as a whole has struggled more than ever.
The World Cup opener in Ruka, Finland, in early December was his first competition in almost a year - where he finished on the podium - and then there was only one more competition before the Olympics.
"My body has ached during walks in Stockholm and my thoughts have revolved around: 'How will I be able to ski moguls?'"
In Livigno he was still able to ski, with the help of painkillers.
But Wallberg failed to defend his Olympic gold medal from Beijing 2022 and was left without a medal.
“Terrible”
"It's terrible. I stood there counting down the riders. It was like the worst-case scenario that could happen. I feel like I deserved a medal after this past year, with injuries and yet I got here and fought so hard for it," he says.
Walter Wallberg now competes in the parallel moguls on Sunday alongside Olympic debutant Rasmus Stegfeldt, who finished 18th in the final.
Australia's Cooper Woods finished on the same score as Canada's Mikael Kingsbury, 83.71, but won the gold thanks to a higher technical score. Ikuma Horishima, Japan, took the bronze.
