As the last point of the men's singles final in Rio ended with Lee Chong Wei's smash landing agonizingly wide, it was impossible not to feel for the Malaysian, who had lost the gold-medal match for the third straight Olympic Games. This, after winning his semi-final against the man who had denied him gold in the two previous games, Lin Dan. The defeat in the final was another in a long list of disappointments in the biggest tournaments.
Lee Chong Wei's career is an unusual mix of exceptional success, consistency, and disappointment. He has held the No. 1 ranking for an incredible 307 weeks since the beginning of 2009, when BWF computer rankings were first introduced; between August 2008 and June 2012 he spent 199 consecutive weeks at the top. These numbers of long-term dominance are much like those of Roger Federer, who was No. 1 in the ATP rankings for 302 weeks, including 237 in a row.
The next best in badminton among men's singles players during this period is 76 weeks, by Chen Long, who defeated Lee Chong Wei in the Olympics final. It's clear that Lee Chong Wei has been the dominant player in men's singles badminton over the last eight years. Yet, the biggest prizes have consistently eluded him.
In world badminton, the two biggest tournaments are the World Championships - held every year except the Olympic year - and the Olympic Games: each fetches the winner 12,000 points, while the Super Series Premier events fetch 11,000. Lee Chong has reached seven finals in these two biggest tournaments, but hasn't won a single one. Four times he has been denied by Lin Dan, and three times by Chen Long.
In the 2016 Olympics, he got past Lin Dan in a titanic battle in the semi-finals 22-20 in the third game - the players hugged and exchanged shirts after the match in what was one of the most poignant moments of the Games - but Chen Long was a bridge too far. The defeat means Lee Chong has reached the final of the biggest tournament of the year in each of the last six years... only to lose each time.
It isn't as if Lee Chong hasn't beaten these players or won other big tournaments in badminton - he has three All England Open titles, 11 Super Series Premier titles and four World Super Series Finals, the year-end championship featuring the top players. On the biggest stages, though, he has inexplicably fallen short.
His head-to-head rivalry against his two biggest opponents bear some resemblance to Federer's as well: he is 12-25 against left-hander Lin Dan (much like Federer's 11-23 against another left-hand rival), and 13-13 against a younger, right-hand opponent Chen Long (not unlike Federer's 22-23 head-to-head against Novak Djokovic).
Like Lee Chong, Federer has lost several times to Nadal and Djokovic on the biggest stages in the last few years; since 2008, Federer is 0-4 against Nadal and 0-3 against Djokovic in Grand Slam finals, which adds up to a similar 0-7 record at the biggest stage of the biggest tournaments (though he has beaten them in other tournaments).
Federer, though, has amassed enough Grand Slam titles to feel secure about his legacy as one of the greatest - if not the greatest - men's players of all time. He has won more Grand Slam titles than anyone on the men's tour, and has beaten both Nadal and Djokovic in Grand Slam finals in the past.
While Lee Chong Wei's longevity and his hold over the top ranking are Federer-esque, he doesn't have the biggest titles in the sport; by comparison, Lin Dan has won five World Championships and two golds in the Olympics, apart from six All England Open titles. Those are numbers that Lee Chong Wei can't get anywhere close to.
(S Rajesh is Stats Editor of ESPNcricinfo)