Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson have always been a contrast in style.

Elegance versus power. Cool restraint versus twinkle-eyed pep. Russian roots versus Heartland purity.

Liukin’s way proved superior in 2008, yielding the then-18-year-old an Olympic all-around title and a place among the greatest American gymnasts ever.

Four years later, it’s Johnson who has made out like a winner.

She knew when to walk away from a sport that had passed her by. Liukin didn’t, and it cost her.

Last month Johnson retired from competitive gymnastics, ending her attempted comeback from ACL surgery.

Since then, she’s taken well to her new role as an ambassador of the sport: schmoozing with reporters at U.S. Trials, hyping her former training buddies from Chow’s gym and serving as a recurrent go-to for star-hungry cameras.

Johnson was an undeniable presence this weekend—even in street clothes.

A tier below on the arena floor stood Liukin—somber, defiant and so plainly an outsider among the gaggle of teen upstarts in her midst.

That tableau of past and present grew clearer every time Liukin performed. Day 1 was a struggle throughout. Liukin, by her own admission, “ran out of steam” during a ragged uneven bars routine and wasn’t much better on beam.

Day 2 brought the exclamation point, a sobering face-plant on her uneven bars routine that drew gasps from the San Jose crowd.

Liukin finished her set and the crowd rallied to her aid, but there was no erasing the fall. Among famous final athletic impressions, it belongs to the same category of woe as Brett Favre (bound to the icy turf of a college stadium) and Willie Mays (bound to the fading Mets).

Considering the zeitgeist’s appetite for five-second “fails,” you can bet Liukin’s parting shot will receive ample replay on America’s digital back-channels. And, fair or not, some people will remember Liukin by her eight-foot fall from grace.

Not most, but some.

Now, all this is hindsight, Liukin could have transcended age and expectation á la Dara Torres in 2008. And if she had, we’d all be dreaming up new adjectives to extol her grit, her resilience, her greatness.

But all the tea leaves from Visa Nationals—the last major event before Trials and a veritable exposé of Liukin’s fading skills—said something like this was coming. Maybe not with such horrific emphasis, but, then again, not even the Greeks could have scripted such tragic poignancy.

Many gymnastics fans will say that the brilliance of Liukin’s career should outweigh the fallout of her ill-conceived comeback attempt.

And I agree. But that doesn’t mean the world will.

Brigid McCarthy captures the recent surge of sentiment against Liukin in a piece posted earlier today on The Couch Gymnast (a must-read blog for fans of the sport).