2027: Fan that I am of ending things on a high, I'm heading off riding the crest of that Shaun White wave, and before that British curling score gets any worse. (In actual fact the British have hauled it back to 4-2.) I may be off, but you can carry on watching the curling live online if you're in the UK, while the Czech men take on Slovakia in the hockey in just over half an hour's time. You can, of course, follow all the action using our extensive online results service too. See you later on Thursday for more from Vancouver.
-
Curling latest scores and detailed real-time results- Women's hockey:
Slovakia v Switzerland (currently 1-1)
- Men's hockey:
Czech Republic v Slovakia (starts 2100Van/0500UK)
2020: Olympic volunteers are posing for photos at the top of the half-pipe because they know Cypress Mountain is going down as the venue where Shaun White rewrote snowboarding history - the latest rewrite of many. That score is unbelievable... you wonder what the judges found to mark him down on.
2015: GOLD for
Shaun White in the half-pipe. The crowd want to see a tomahawk from White, a sort of double-McTwist, but are they going to see one? YES! He squeeeeezes it in at the last, throws the board away, rips the headwear off and reveals a smile as wide as the pipe. He even increases his score, getting 48.4 from the judges. Forget a McTwist, that's a whopper.
2012:Scott Lago crashes out as he makes a desperate bid to outdo Shaun White, but his failure means White is
guaranteed half-pipe gold - without even having started his second run. What's he going to do with it then?
2008: Hello!
Peetu Piiroinen of Finland, who won the 2008 Big Air in London, really pushes the boat out but it
still isn't enough to unseat Shaun White. Piiroinen goes second. White's fingers are surely closing around that gold now with three athletes to go, including him.
2002: More like it from
Justin Lamoureux of Canada. I don't think he can hope to beat White but silver is definitely up for grabs here, given the sheer number of athletes failing even to stay afloat all the way down the pipe. The judges give Lamoureux 35.9... which is pretty much worthless to him. Up into seventh he goes.
1955: Oh now look will
somebody please stay on their feet? France's
Mathieu Crepel is the latest to slide unceremoniously down the pipe into obscurity. White only needs to sit back and collect his gold at this rate. If he knows he's got gold, his second run could be interesting.
1953: Back to
the half-pipe then. Can anybody pull something better than Shaun White's 46.8 out of the bag? Certainly not
Markus Malin of Finland and
Gregory Bretz of the US, both of whom crash out.
1951: Eve Muirhead lands a spectacular last shot in the third end to get Britain on the board - it's now 2-1. She bounces up and down with joy, then notices the cameras are on her and tries to go back to the usual "I'm giving this serious thought" look. Not fooling anyone.
1947: The second run in the half-pipe is coming up shortly, so let's see how
Eve Muirhead and friends are doing in the curling over at the Vancouver Olympic Centre. Answer: not overly well. They're 2-0 down to Sweden and are now trying to excavate themselves from a spot of bother in the third end. For somebody from Perth, Muirhead doesn't half look tanned
in her photo on her profile page. I wonder where she'd been?
1939:Shaun White is different class, isn't he? I'm not even going to try to describe the last 30 seconds of half-pipe. We still have one more run to go to decide the gold medal, but it's difficult to see how anybody is going to beat White. He scores 46.8 with his first run, a full four points clear of fellow countryman
Scott Lago in second, and duly goes top.
1937: In the
women's curling Britain are 2-0 down to Sweden in the third end.
1928: Switzerland's
Youri Podladtchikov becomes the first boarder I've seen all day to stay upright throughout his half-pipe final run. I say upright, he actually spends half his time spinning upside-down, that being the point. But he doesn't get the marks the BBC commentary team were expecting, and down into second he goes.
1924: Medals are coming at us thick and fast, and the next will be at Cypress Mountain where the
men's half-pipe final has started. Shaun White will go last. You can watch live online if you're in the UK.
1921: GOLD for
China's Wang Meng in the
women's 500m short track after more false starts than I've had hot dinners. In fact, there have genuinely been more false starts at Pacific Coliseum tonight than I have had hot dinners since reaching Vancouver. Just as it was getting tedious, Wang got the start she needed and surged so far clear of the pack, she might as well have back-pedalled the final 100m.
1917: GOLD for Austria's Linger brothers at the
men's doubles luge up in Whistler, which is pretty much as expected having led going into the second and final run. False start at the short track.
1914: Medals are imminent in the men's doubles luge and the women's 500m short track...
1905: Women's downhill winner
Lindsey Vonn has been
tweeting somewhat exuberantly, as follows: "This is the BEST day of my LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me along the way!!!!!!..."
She'd better tone it down a bit before she goes in the combined on Thursday. There's a quota on exclamation marks in tweets, you know. Then the
Twitter whale comes along and gets you.
1900: And who, having seen it once, could ever forget the
men's doubles luge? There are six pairs left to go before we have a winner up in Whistler.
1859: We're not done at Pacific Coliseum - the
women's 500m short track final, cause of such British misery earlier (see 1738 entry as an example), will be on in 10 minutes. Just after that we're back off to Cypress Mountain for the
men's half-pipe final. There is also women's ice hockey between
Slovakia and Switzerland starting now, in addition to the curling listed below.
1855: Alas, the British team are barely visible through the dust of the other three nations, and it's China and Canada who go through to next week's
5000m short track relay final. China nicked it past Canada right on the line, which may mildly annoy the Canadians but they are still having a cracking night at Pacific Coliseum.
1850: Britain are currently last in the 5000m short track relay. The day is not improving for the GB short track team. Miserable tweets from
Jon Eley and
Anthony Douglas on the horizon.
1847: While we wait for all these skaters to get through 50 laps, let's look ahead a little. In just over 10 minutes the British women's curling team,
who surprised world champions China earlier today, are
back in action against Sweden. (No Kevin Keegan references this time.) At the same time, China play Switzerland and Russia face Denmark at the perishingly-cold Vancouver Olympic Centre.
1845: South Korea and the US are through to the
men's 5000m short track relay final but France are also advanced after much discussion, with the Italians disqualified. So we should end up with five teams in the final (though not for the first time in Olympic history by any means). Will Britain be one of those teams? Tune in now to find out, they're about to go up against Germany, Canada and China.
1842: Sweden have wrapped up that
2-0 win over Germany in the men's hockey. Remember, whenever you hear about Sweden in the men's hockey, just think of Kevin Keegan (see 1802 entry). Perfectly captures the mood of a nation.
1839: In the first semi-final of the
men's short track 5000m relay both the Italian and French teams have crashed, making this a bit of a procession for the South Korean and American teams. Still 25 laps to go.
1836: Fact for the day -
Chemmy Alcott loves a good camel bump: "It's a really fun downhill, they've done an immense job and Mother Nature finally did us a favour," she said after
her downhill run earlier, where she placed 13th. "There is a section at the top which we call the Camel Bumps, but suddenly there are three, and camels don't have three bumps... so I really don't know where that third one came from. But I certainly hit it."
1832: If you live in the UK, you can watch live online as the British men's 5000m short track relay team go in the second of two semi-finals - the first of which is about to start at Pacific Coliseum. Get
live timing information from our extended results pages while you're at it.
1828: Time is running out for
Germany against Sweden in the men's hockey. Still 2-0 to Sweden with eight minutes of the third period left.
1823: As well-identified by Joris via text, not only are
the brothers leading the luge doubles Austrian rather than German, they are also only leading by 0.088 seconds, a substantially less hefty lead than previously reported. Rest assured the research parrot will be shot.
1811: The first run of the
men's doubles luge is done and the defending Olympic champions, German brothers Wolfgang and Andreas Linger, have a hefty lead. They're 0.88 seconds clear of Latvians Andris and Juris Sics. The second heat and medal run starts in 20 minutes' time.
1805: The British short track team may be disappointed but they can't afford to stay that way for long - the men have a
5000m relay semi-final in around half an hour's time, in which they're not considered a bad prospect. "As a team we've got to go out and give it everything," Jon Eley told us a moment ago. That medal isn't decided today - the final, in fact, is nine days off. Seems odd.
1802: All this skating nearly threatened to get in the way of the men's ice hockey, you know. But I do have an eye on defending Olympic champions Sweden, who are leading Germany 2-0 after two periods.
Follow the game in detail using our comprehensive real-time results pages. Can Sweden seriously challenge Canada for gold? I know the Swedish, who have an office next door to my live text cooler, get all Kevin Keegan -
"we'd love it, love it" - when I mention the prospect.
1758: A queue of glum British short track speed skaters is forming next to Matt Pinsent at Pacific Coliseum.
Jon Eley: "I'm very disappointed. I thought I'd skated really well out there. I did a personal best but just let it slip on the last lap - I wasn't quite on it in the last corner and I did make a mistake. I thought I was in the right position but I let it go."
Tom Iveson: "It's something that happens every week in short track - we have massive highs and lows at the same time. It's the unpredictable nature that makes it such a great sport to take part in."
1754: While Kilner was plummeting out of the Olympics, American short track poster boy
Apolo Anton Ohno cruised through his 1000m heat.
1751: Scottish 21-year-old
Ben Kilner needs,
needs to get his second run right in his
half-pipe semi-final. But down he goes, and that is his Olympics over. Sympathetic applause from the crowd but he's flat out on the snow at the bottom, making morose snow angels for want of anything better to do.
1748: GOLD for
Shani Davis of the US in
the men's long course 1000m speed skating at the Richmond Olympic Oval. It may have been a miserable half-hour or so for the British short track mob, but in the meantime Davis in the long course version has become something of a legend. He is now the first man in Olympic history to defend the 1000m speed skating title, after a brilliantly measured race which he took by 0.19 seconds. Silver for South Korea's
Mo Tae-Bum and another American -
Chad Hedrick - takes bronze.
1744:Tom Iveson drops off the pace in his men's short track 1000m heat, and out goes Britain's other entrant following Jon Eley's earlier departure.
1741: More from
Sarah Lindsay on her disqualification: "You're at a disadvantage being on the outside and everyone cuts across trying to get the inside lane. We both crashed, she (Jessica Gregg) kept falling, she was coming off worse. It's not my fault she was more clumsy than I am."
1738: British short track speed skater
Sarah Lindsay is fuming after being disqualified from the women's 500m a few moments ago. She's been talking to Matt Pinsent at Pacific Coliseum: "It's a shame I didn't get a chance to show what I can do. The rules are nobody has right of way at the start - you have to try to get to the first block first, which I was trying to do. It always gets rough and there are always falls and crashes at the start but nobody has right of way yet until you're on the track and in your lane. I don't know why the Canadian got preference."
1734: A brilliant move from
Jon Eley looks to give him the chance of progressing in the
men's 1000m short track but
Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands steals through. Eley is out of the 1000m. Fellow Briton Tom Iveson will go in a few heats' time.
1725: Up at Cypress Mountain the men's half-pipe semi-final is well under way and Britain's Ben Kilner falls early on in his ride. He is going to need a fantastic second run if he is to make the Olympic final on his debut. I'm off now but Oliver Williams will guide you through the rest of the evening's action.
1720: GB hopes rest on 19-year-old Elise Christie in the fourth heat but she finishes third and fails to advance despite an appeal from her coaches that South Korea's Eun-Byul Lee shoved her as she overtook the youngster. But the result stands so disappointment for the Brits in the women's but we have more British action in men's 1000m with Jon Eley and Tom Iveson racing.
1710: Katherine Reutter (US) and Kalyna Roberge (Can) advance from the first heat, Sarah Lindsay and Jessica Gregg fall before the first corner in the second heat but the rules allow them to go again. At the second time of asking Lindsay and Gregg are down on the ice again before the first corner and Lindsay is disqualified. She looks disgusted with the judge's decision and bang goes her Olympic dream. Defending champion Wang Meng and Gregg go through.
1700: We're about to go in the semi-final heats of the women's 500m and GB are represented by Sarah Lindsay and Elise Christie, with Lindsay in heat two and Christie in heat four. Could Britain win their first medal of these games tonight?
1650: Canada women are happy with their afternoon's work after a 13-1 win over Sweden. There's lots more ice hockey to come, including Sweden v Germany and Czech Republic v Slovakia in the men's and Russia v Denmark in the women's. You can keep up to date with our
live scores page ,
Vicky in Exeter texts: "So how many from the half-pipe semi-final go through into the final?" The answer to that Vicky is six, so half the 12-strong field will qualify. Action starts at 1715 (0115 GMT).
1645: Canada's women have taken their foot off the gas a bit but are still
13-1 up coming towards the end of the match. Our BBC commentator
Bob Ballard reckons it will be a Canada v USA final.
1625: Great Britain's men have registered their first win with a 9-4 thrashing of France, just what the GB boys needed. The women are back in action against Sweden at 1900 (0300 GMT).
1610: At Richmond Olympic Oval, the men's 1000m has just started and American Shani Davis is aiming to defend his Olympic title but he will be challenged by team-mate Chad Hendrick and South Korea's Tae-Bum Mo, who took the 500m gold on Monday.
1600: The men's qualification is over in half-pipe and from heat two Finland's Peetu Piiroinen, Japan's Kazuhiro Kokubo and Swiss Iouri Podladtchikov qualify direct for the final. The semi-finals will start at 1715 (0115 GMT) with Britain's Ben Kilner aiming to secure a top six finish and qualify for the final. I've known Ben for a few years and he is a top lad so, in a completely unbiased way, I'm rooting for him.
1550: Remember you can always text your comments or
Tweet me. 1545: Canada's women are wasting no time in the
ice hockey and are now 12-0 up in the second period against the sorry Swedes.
1540: The snowboarding event is hotting up but Swiss Iouri Podladchikov, who many feel could challenge Shaun White for gold, is only third in the heat two rankings with a score of 41.4 and is waiting to see if he qualifies for the final outright or if he will have to scrap through the semis.
1530: It's half-way in the
men's curling and Britain's men are 6-2 up against France. They are now having a little break and eating fruit and energy snacks.
"Hi. Will you be showing a repeat of the women's downhill at all? Thanks," asks Fiona from Manchester via text. Fiona - our team are turning around the video of Lindsey's Vonn's victory and it will appear inside the page
where we reported her win , very soon ...
1520 We're into the second run of the men's half-pipe and Canada's Jeff Batchelor will not be making the semi-final after falling close to the end of his run. He won a silver medal at last year's World Championship's but his Olympics is over. He smiles for the cameras but that must be masking a lot of disappointment.
1505: Back over at the
ice hockey and Canada's women are being ruthless in their quest for a top seeding and are 5-0 up against Sweden in the first period, they have 20 shots on goal to Sweden's paltry one.
1500: The GB men curlers are looking comfortable in the curling and lead 4-0 after three ends. You can follow the
live scores here.
Stuart Dodds texts to say: "Hey Rhona, I never knew that rule existed in the sport, regarding Ewan's first shot in end 2. You learn something new every day."
BBC curling commentator Rhona Martin: "Thankfully the GB match this morning appears to have raised the temperature and I'm now thinking of commentating in just a vest. Still no telestrator though - I'm getting quite upset that my drawing skills have not yet been put to the test but hopefully later today they will come into play!"
1450: The second qualification heat in the men's half-pipe is under way with Canada's Jeff Batchelor but despite huge cheers from the crowd he crashes half-way down and will have to rely on a good second run. France's Arthur Longo, sporting a thin moustache, pulls off some spectacular tricks and scores 34.5 which should be enough to get him into the semi-finals.
1443: There is also
women's hockey just starting with Canada taking on Sweden at Thunderbird Arena. Could be feisty.
1440: GB men have furthered their lead in the men's curling and are now 3-0 up after two ends. Good start after losing to Sweden in the first match.
1430: Hello everyone. What a morning's action we've already had and there's plenty of stuff still to come but do me a quick favour and hit the refresh button. Ta.
1425: After watching
Shaun White in the half-pipe I'm off to dye my hair red. Anna Thompson will guide you through the next couple of hours of action. Have fun.
1420: Great Britain's men begin in encouraging fashion to take a 1-0 lead over France after the first end of their round-robin match.
You can follow the scoring on our
live page1415: Defending champion
Shaun White tops qualification in the first heat of the men's half-pipe. Japan's Ryo Aono is second and American Louie Vito third. Those three go straight to the final and the next six riders go through to the semi-finals. Britain's
Ben Kilner qualifies seventh to make the semis. Great work. Next up, the second 20-man heat.
1410: GOLD for Russian
Nikita Kriukov in the men's cross-country individual sprint classic. Russia's Alexander Panzhinskiy takes silver medal and Petter Northug of Norway wins bronze.
Britain's men's curlers are taking on France in their second match after losing the opener to Sweden yesterday. It's the first end.
1400: GOLD for Norway's
Marit Bjoergen in the women's cross country sprint classic. Bjoergen also won bronze in the 10km freestyle on Monday but after silvers in 2002 and 2006 this is her first gold. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk wins the silver medal and Slovenia's Petra Majdic takes the bronze.Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 5-1 Belarus in the third period. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1355:Shaun White begins his second qualification run with a HUGE backside air but can't stick the landing on a move further down the pipe and just coasts into the finish. He's already qualified with his opening run of 45.8. Britain's Ben Kilner pulls out some big moves and ranks sixth, a big chance to make the semi-finals.
Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 4-1 Belarus in the second period. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1340: All 45 women have competed which means
Lindsey Vonn is officially the
GOLD MEDALLIST. Her fellow American Julia Mancuso takes second with Austria's Elisabeth Goergl third. Britain's
Chemmy Alcott finishes 13th.
1330: Here's a rundown of the qualifiers from the quarter-finals of the women's cross country sprint classic (best two from each heat plus two fastest runners-up) qualify: Heat 1. Marit Bjorgen (Nor) Astrid Jacobsen (Nor) Kikkan Randall (US) Heat 2. Magda Genuin (Ita) Natalia Korosteleva (Rus) Heat 3. Justyna Kowalczyk (Po) Virpi Kuitunen (Fin) Heat 4. Petra Majdic (Slo) Katerina Smutna (Aut) Heat 5. Anna Olsson (Swe) Magdalena Pajala (Swe) Celine Brun-Lie (Nor)
1325: Britain's
Ben Kilner puts in a solid run and scores 21.5 to rank seventh of those who have come down so far.
1315:Shaun White is up next and kicks off with a huge backside air, followed by a double cork 1080, a cab 1080, a frontside 540, a stale fish and a backside 900. No McTwists, but he ranks number one with 45.8 - a 15-point lead over his nearest rival. The riders get two qualification runs, the best one will count. There are two 20-man heats with the best three in each go straight through to the final. Positions fourth to ninth will go to semi-finals.
Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 3-1 Belarus in the second period. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1305: Big delay in the women's downhill as Edith Miklos crashes into the netting and is eventually airlifted to hospital. If anyone of the racers ranked 30-45 beats Lindsey Vonn I'll eat my keyboard.
Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 2-1 Belarus in the second period. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1255: Strap yourselves in, folks, it's time to McTwist the afternoon away. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're probably not ready for it. If you want to be ready, join us.
Shaun White will try to defend his half-pipe title. I wrote about this snowboarding icon in a recent
blog. The event starts with qualifying before the final begins tonight from 1915 (0315 GMT).
Ben Kilner goes for Great Britain.
1240: After GB women's curlers fantastic
win over China, other results from the women's round robin include Germany beating the United States 6-5, Canada scoring two in the final end to defeat Japan 7-6 and Sweden beating the Swiss 8-7 after an extra end.
Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 2-0 Belarus at the end of the first period. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1235: Italy's Elena Fanchini completes the top 30 in the women's downhill, meaning
Lindsey Vonn is very likely to be crowned the women's downhill champion. There are 15 racers left but none are likely to trouble the leaders. So the results (provisional) are:
1. Lindsey Vonn (US)
2. Julia Mancuso (US)
3. Elisabeth Goergl. Britain's
Chemmy Alcott is currently 13th.
1230: The quarter-finals of the men's and women's individual sprint are set to get under way in Whistler. We'll bring you all the crucial news. Or you can follow our
cross country live page. 1222: SauberRG asks on
Twitter about TV coverage of the ice hockey. We'll certainly bring you the USA men's game later, on red button and this here website (UK users only), but since all of the teams in action today are European, it's well worth having a root around on the other European nations' TV coverage, which you can get to by clicking the little 'promo' (as we call them) on the right-hand side of this page (the one under the medals table). That's unless you're reading this on our mobile site, in which case you won't see that promo, sorry. Is that clear? Good.
1216: Germany's
Maria Riesch, another of Vonn's big rivals and the American's best friend, can't get anywhere near the lead and comes home eighth, pushing Britain's Chemmy Alcott down to 12th.
1215: Men's ice hockey latest: Finland 1-0 Belarus. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1207: WHOA! Sweden's
Anja Paerson, one of the big threats to Lindsey Vonn and in second on the intermediate timing gun, flies like a ski jumper off the last jump, fully 60m in the air and hits the deck fast. She ends up in a heap as Vonn winces watching the big screen. Paerson gets up but is limping. Hope she's OK for her other events because she could be a multiple medallist.
1205: Great graphic of Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso on course at the same time - Vonn is behind for quite a while and then flies past. Racer number 20, Marion Rolland of France, pushes out of the gate and travels about 15 yards before falling over. Oops.
Ice hockey fans - Belarus v Finland is about to get under way at Canada hockey place. You can follow the game on our
ice hockey live page.1152: American speed queen
Lindsey Vonn is in the starting gate. She has won five out of six races this season and is the world champion. She's up on team-mate Mancuso on the first split. She builds that by the next check, and crosses the line 0.56 secs ahead of Mancuso. Vonn's participation was in doubt before the Games with a shin injury, but she now leads the Olympic downhill. Mancuso second, Georgl third. Canada's big hope Emily Brydon can't match Vonn and comes home 12th, more than 3.5 secs back. Chemmy Alcott is still 10th for Team GB.
You can also follow the race on our
women's downhill live page.1146: The Chinese skip send down her final stone and knocks out the British stone. British skip
Eve Muirhead delivers the last stone of the match and comes up trumps, nudging into the Chinese stone to score one and complete a 5-4 win over the worlds champions. "A great result, a great boost for them," says BBC commentator Rhona Martin.
1144: China knocks out the British stone to lie two. British skip
Eve Muirhead sends down her penultimate stone and removes the Chinese scorer to lie one.
1142: China call a time-out to discuss what to do with the British stone in the house. China also have one in the house but further away. Two stones left each.
1140: In the deciding end of the GB v China curling, Britain have the last stone and with five stones left in total Britain lies one.
1132: A quick update for you on the qualification round for the men's sprint classic:
1. Alexander Panzhinskiy (Russia) 3 minutes 34.57 seconds
2. Emil Joensson (Sweden) 3:36.01
3. Ola Vigen Hattestad (Norway) 3:36.43
BBC commentator Rob Walker brings us a description of a nasty crash in the women's sprint event: "
Petra Majdiclink slipped down a gully during a warm-up for the qualification in the
women's individual sprint classic. She must have fallen a minumum of six to 10 feet down a gully or ditch. She was supposed to start third out of 54 competitors with each one going every 15 seconds but she was allowed to start 54th, ie the very last competitor, to give her extra eight minutes of recovery time. She made it and qualified but had to be carried away from the finish looking inconsolable. It remains to be seen whether she will take her place in the
quarter-finals ."
1128: Switzerland's Dominique Gisin suffers a big fall near the bottom of the women's downhill course but she is sitting up and OK, though very badly winded.
And for curling follow our curling live page.
1127: A hammer blow - geddit? - for Britain's women's curlers as China score two in the 10th end to take the match into an 11th, tied 4-4.
1125: American
Julia Mancuso, Chemmy Alcott's best mate, flies into the lead in the women's downhill, beating Goergl into second. No American woman has ever won the Olympic downhill.
1123: Great news for British sliding fans as
Amy Williams finishes second in the final two training runs in the skeleton. She said afterwards: "I managed to enjoy it, and whenever I relax, enjoy it and have fun, it seems to work out. It's a four run race. I'm normally quite consistent and I'm hoping that will pay off. " Shelley Rudman is 13th and fourth.
1120: American Stacey Cook, who was airlifted to hospital after a crash in training, beats Alcott by 0.33 seconds. But the first of the Austrians, Elisabeth Goergl, trounces the pair of them, 1.33 seconds faster. The first of the Canadians, Britt Janyk, is down next but can only go second to groans of disappointment.
You can follow all the racers as they finish on our
women's downhill live page.1112: Great Britain pick up another point in end nine to take a 4-2 lead into the final end. You can follow the match on our
curling live page. 1110:Chemmy Alcott makes it down in 1:47.31 and leads the 2010 Olympic downhill. She crashes into the pads in the finish area but picks herself up and punches the air. Her best event is probably the combined on Thursday.
1105: The first skier down, Klara Krizova of the Czech Republic, skids out on Franz's Run.
Chemmy Alcott is in the starting gate. If she gets down she will be leading the Olympic downhill. And not many British women can say they've done that. Or men for that matter.
1100: Eyes down, look in. It's the women's downhill. Britain's
Chemmy Alcott goes second. She was 11th in Turin. Can she beat that? Let's find out. A slight delay first, after a forerunner crashes. It's a perfect sunny day in Whistler.
1055: China squander a golden chance to score two with the last stone. The skip only needs to remove the British stone and leave hers in the house but her red stone also slides out, giving her just one other scorer. But China narrow the gap to 3-2 with one end left. Follow the match
curling live page 1045: Rob in Todmoreden via text asks: "Does brushing the ice make the stones go faster or slower? We have been arguing about it at dinner." In a nutshell, the brushing does make the stones go faster/further but it also helps them curl in the required direction. For more info, have a look at
trycurling.co.uk. 1040: In the women's sprint qualification, Norway's
Marit Bjoergen was fastest from Finland's Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Swede's Anna Olsson.
My colleague Anna Thompson was at Cypress Mountain yesterday for the women's snowboard cross. She chatted to Zoe Gillings afterwards and the Briton told her she hurt her knee in the semi-final which was why she pulled out straight after the start of the small final. You can read
Anna's blog on the BBC Sport website.
1032: Britain and China blank end six so the score remains
3-1 to
Eve Muirhead's side. Don't forget you can follow the game on our
curling live page.1020: Norway's Marit Bjoergen, bronze medallist in the 10km freestyle, is the early leader in the women's sprint classic. The event starts with a time trial. The fastest 30 go through to five quarter-finals of six racers. The top two from each, plus two fastest losers then progress again.
More on the blades v mono debate.
Snowy Toes via text: says "Mono all the way. But you have to be wearing an all-in-one sag bag to complete the picture."
A nice image Snowy Toes. Can I suggest jeans and gaiters as an alternative?
1015: Britain stand to score two as China deliver the final stone but the Chinese skip leaves it well short and
Eve Muirhead's side take two against the hammer to lead
3-1 after five ends. Then, a bit like breaking for tea in cricket, the Chinese sit down for a picnic at the side of the sheet while discussing tactics.
1005: As end five gets under way, I'll delve through the inbox. It seems I asked and you delivered because that's how we roll.
SnowboardVicky in Fife via text says in response to my question on the relative merits of blades v monos: "Snow blades are useless in powder but much easier to cart around than skis or snowboards!
That may be true, Vicky, but they're not very hardcore, are they. Vive le mono.
Anon via text: says: "I'm gripped by the women's curling, but how do those shoes work? Well, there's one slippy one that's lets them scoot along and one grippy one.
Keith in Covent Garden, London, via text: says: "Rob, to avoid doing any work at university I and one of my mates watched virtually every minute of the Lillehammer Olympics in '94. I wonder what happened to Richie Cobbing? I still feel he let us down somewhat."
Well, I just happen to have well-known winter sports commentator Patrick Winterton to hand and he tells us that he was very big in trampolining and now runs a pub. I met him once at a party. Richard Cobbing, that is, not Patrick Winterton, whom I've only just met now.
1000: British skip
Eve Muirhead delivers the hammer - the final stone - with the possibility of scoring three. But she misjudges slightly and can only take one. So after four ends it's Great Britain 1-1 China.
Lesley in Zurich, Switzerland via text: "Come on GB curling ladies. I'm cheering on Kelly Wood. I studied with her at Stirling University in 2000."
0950: Coming up at 1015 (1815 GMT) we have the men's and women's individual sprint classic in cross country skiing. Great Britain will be represented by teenagers Andrew Musgrave, who was 55th in the 15km freestyle, and Andrew Young, who was 74th.
Latest scores from other curling matches this morning: Japan 3-2 Canada, Germany 1-0 USA, Switzerland 2-1 Sweden.
0945: Using her last-stone advantage, British skip
Eve Muirhead clears out the Chinese stone and blanks the end so Britain will retain the hammer - the last stone in the fourth end.
China 1-0 Great Britain. "Today the ice seems faster and crisper," says BBC commentator Rhona Martin at the Vancouver Olympic Centre. "They've turned down the temperature, making it freezing in here. Each day they'll experiment with the temperature but the ice does look faster than it did for the men yesterday."
0930: China deliver their final stone into the house but British skip
Eve Muirhead misses with her last stone to hand China a 1-0 lead after two ends. "Plenty of time to go," says BBC commentator Rhona Martin.
Yesterday I published a blog about
snowboard icon Shaun White, who is the favourite for the men's half-pipe title tonight (finals begins at 1915, 0315 UK). It has sparked a debate on the merits of boarding in the Olympics and other sports that should/should not be included. Have and look and wade in. We can discuss it here if you want, too.
0915: So a blank end to start Britain's match with China, which means neither side could keep a scoring stone in the house.
0900: A piper belts out a tune as Britain prepare to open their campaign. The team is
Eve Muirhead, Jackie Lockhart, Kelly Wood and Lorna Vevers. China send down the first stone and the match is under way as Britain look to improve on the opening loss of David Murdoch's men's side on Tuesday.
As we mentioned yesterday, there's a website called
trycurling.co.uk that is worth a look if you're wanting to get your head around curling jargon like 'the hammer', which is the term to denote which team has the last stone in an end.
0855: Britain's 2002 gold-medal winning women's skip
Rhona Martin is in situ at the Vancouver Olympic Centre to see her 2010 equivalent, 19-year-old Eve Muirhead, lead GB into action against China. Rhona was cruelly denied the opportunity to write stuff on your telly yesterday because the kit didn't work - she tells us: "I'm looking forward to Great Britain taking on the world champions and my first successful telestration. Yesterday's technical problems denied me the opportunity so fingers crossed for today." Alongside Rhona is the 1984 1500m Olympic silver medallist
Steve Cram, who is struggling with kit of a different type. "We are in our seats nice and early but I'm still struggling with the weather here - it's T-shirts outside but three pullovers in the venue and I've only got two."
0850: Now then, to make this whole thing swing, I'd love to hear from you so we can all have a yarn about what's going on and other things besides. Yesterday we discussed whether all-in-ones are cool, maybe today it could be the relative merits between snow blades and monoskis. You can get in touch via
text on 81111 if you're in the UK or +44778620066 if you're not. You can also Tweet me, if that's your bag, on, unsurprisingly,
Twitter. 0845: Aha, thought I might find you here. How's tricks? It's a glorious sunny morning in Vancouver and cold up in Whistler so the women's downhill is all set to go on a hard, fast course. Could we see a new Miss Vonn-couver crowned today? The downhill kicks off at 1100 (1900 of your UK hours) with Britain's Chemmy Alcott starting second and huge pre-race favourite Lindsey Vonn 16th. The 25-year-old American is the world downhill and super-G champion, two-time defending overall World Cup winner and has won five of six World Cup downhills this season.
First up, though, Britain's women open their curling campaign against world champions and Olympic debutantes China. Young British skip
Eve Muirhead will be looking to emulate Rhona Martin's side, who won gold in 2002. Curling begins at 0900 Vancouver time, 1700 GMT, so get everything you need and settle down.
You can also follow all the action and get updates on all this morning's matches - Germany v USA, Switzerland v Sweden and Japan v Canada - on our
curling live page.
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