NAGANO, Japan -- The disappointment was etched so deeply on Todd Eldredge's face, it made looking at him painful.

Todd Eldredge's Olympic prayers went unanswered. (Reuters)

The men's figure skating gold medal was his to lose Saturday night, and he lost it. The silver and bronze, too.

"Today wasn't my day, that's all," he said, his blue eyes as lifeless as his voice. "It's something I really wanted, but everybody doesn't get everything they want."

WITH EVERYTHING HANGING ON the 4 1-2-minute Olympic free skate, Eldredge put on his worst performance since reviving his career five years ago. He crashed to the ice on a triple axel, watered down three jumps -- and wound up fourth.

He was third after Thursday's short program, when he skated well enough to be first with three judges. A similar performance probably would have gotten him a medal -- something the United States hasn't won since Paul Wylie's silver in 1992.

The night, instead, belonged to Russia's Ilya Kulik. .

Silky smooth and nearly perfect, he won the gold medal with eight triples and a quadruple jump. Silver went to Canada's Elvis Stojko, who persevered through eight triple jumps with a torn groin muscle. Bronze belonged to Frenchman Philippe Candeloro, who skated a masterful performance of D'Artagnan from The Three Musketeers.

Eldredge, though, never even had the satisfaction of knowing he had skated his best.

"Good? That's a relative term today," the five-time U.S. champion said. "Nothing went all that great today."

FROM THE MOMENT HE TOOK THE ICE, it was clear this wasn't going to be his night. He looked almost too tense as he waited for his music to start, and hearing Kulik's marks - 5.9 after 5.9 -- couldn't have helped.

Within seconds, his Olympic medal was slipping away: He turned a planned triple axel-triple toe loop jump combination into a triple-double. Too simple.

He made the same mistake on a planned triple flip-triple toe combination, doubling the second jump instead. Too weak.

When he singled his triple axel, one of his most consistent jumps, the crowd gasped. Tara Lipinski, a U.S. gold medal hopeful and one of his closest friends, buried her head in her hands.

WITH ABOUT 15 SECONDS LEFT, Eldredge improvised, trying the triple axel one more time. He fell. As he finished his program and faced the crowd, he dropped his head and ran a hand through his hair in a gesture of utter frustration.

He skated off the ice as if in a trance, and as he waited for his marks to flash he rocked back and forth in his seat, longtime coach Richard Callaghan by his side.

When his marks were posted -- 5.6s to 5.8s -- he walked backstage, took off his skates and packed up his things.

"I didn't watch anybody else," he said. ``I knew how I skated, and more than likely it was not an Olympic medal performance. When I finished there were no thoughts of medals, or any of that. It was not the performance I wanted to put out there. That's the way it goes."

If anyone in skating has a hard-luck story, it's Eldredge.

AFTER WINNING THE U.S. TITLE in 1990 and '91, he missed the 1992 national championships with a back injury and was given a bye to the Albertville Games. Too out of shape, he fell on a simple double axel in the short program and wound up 10th.

The 1993 season was hellish. Nothing worked, and he went on the ice each day wondering if he could make it through his programs. After finishing sixth in national competition, he quit for two months, at times doubting he'd ever put his skates back on.

He did. After all, he had unfinished Olympic business.

A few days before the 1994 nationals, certain he was skating well enough to make the Olympic team, Eldredge came down with the flu. His fever peaked at 104 and he passed out in his Detroit hotel room. Ailing, he finished fourth.

Since then he has won three more U.S. titles and the 1996 world championship. He arrived in Nagano as one of the medal favorites, and after the short program, the gold medal was within his reach.

But as Eldredge has learned all too well, life is never certain and often unfair.

"It's been six years since I've been here," he said. ``Maybe I wanted it too much."