Each time Elise Christie has stepped on to the ice at these Winter Olympics, there has been a gnawing sense among those watching that they are about to become rubberneckers at the scene of a high-speed smash or witnesses to another painful tearjerker.

Part of that is the nature of short track speedskating, a wildly exciting but devilish sport that requires competitors to ping around a 111m oval track at speeds of more than 20mph, while avoiding opponents swarming and jetting around them. Of course there will be crashes, and plenty of them. It is the nature of the beast.

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Yet, increasingly, it is only fair to also ask how much of Christie’s bad luck is down to her rather than her sport. Sure, one or two slices of misfortune is natural. But a run of six successive crashes or disqualifications at a Winter Olympics dating back to Sochi four years ago is harder to explain.

Was it the increased pressure of being at the biggest event in your sport, she was asked. “No,” she responded, before pointing out she felt more nervous before winning three titles in last year’s world championships in Rotterdam. “I just see it as three races that went rubbish in the last four years. Unfortunately all three of them were here. That’s short track and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

There is some truth to that. In eight women’s 1000m heats at Gangneung Ice Arena on Tuesday, six skaters were disqualified for infringements while another five suffered a similar fate in the men’s 500m heats.

Was she too aggressive when she raced? This time GB’s short track leader, Stewart Laing, shook his head. “It’s harsh if people call Elise reckless,” he said. “It’s the nature of racing.”

Perhaps. But after rewatching all of Christie’s races in Sochi and Pyeongchang there is a case to be made that her all-or-nothing approach narrows the gap between glory and disaster by too great a margin. Hers is a muscular style, an eye-of-the-needle approach, a gold-or-bust attitude.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elise Christie of Great Britain ieaves the Ice Rink after competing in the heats of the Women’s 1000m Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

UK Sport, the funding body for Olympic events, have long espoused a “no compromise” philosophy. Christie has a similar mindset. She has not contemplated, at least publicly, whether she should soften it. The closest she came on Tuesday was to say she would get stronger so she could lead in every race and not have to worry about coming from behind.

In many ways sticking with the tried and trusted is understandable given it brought her three world titles in 2017. But in the cold light of day, going for bronze in the 500m, say, rather than trying a daring move and crashing out may have been more sensible.

Meanwhile what happens next when UK Sport comes to allocating funding for the next Winter Olympics in Beijing will be fascinating. For the current cycle it gave short track £4.76m in funding, and in exchange agreed a target of between one and two medals for these Games. Clearly the sport has come up short.

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Yet it is worth pointing out that before the Winter Olympics, Chelsea Warr, UK Sport’s venerable director of performance, made it clear that sports such as short track speedskating were part of a “theatre of jeopardy” with higher potential rewards but also greater risks of failure than their summer counterparts.

That is right and it should ease some of the programme’s fears. Yet Christie apart, there does not appear to be a deep network of British short track talent ready to burst through. In Pyeongchang it became a familiar sight to see Team GB athletes bundled out in the heats. “We’ll go back and have a thorough review,” said Laing afterwards.

Meanwhile Christie, for all her brilliant talent and engaging personality, will have to learn some lessons too.