[ritchiebaby]

Just finished watching an enthralling game between GB and Italy and it's easy to see how Italy are still unbeaten. A miilimetre-perfect last stone from Stefania Constantini gave Italy 3 shots in the 7th end to lead by 3 going into the last end. Then a centimetre-perfect last stone take-out from her gave GB no chance of getting back the deficit. A fully deserved 7-5 win for Italy, which leaves them on 6 wins at the top of the table, followed by Sweden on 5 wins. Following GB's victory over Czech Republic earlier, GB and Canada share 3rd place on 4 wins and Norway and United States have 3 wins.

Katie Ormerod didn't qualify in her event and the GB speed-skaters also failed to progress. Will Feneley has missed out too. Currently Rupert Staudinger was 22nd in the first run and 24th after the second run, with the final run to come tomorrow, after which the top 20 go again.

[ritchiebaby]

The GB curlers have 2 games tomorrow, the first at 01.05 against China and the second at 12.05 against Norway. Their final round-robin game is versus United States at 01.05 on Monday, after which they will hopefully have qualified to play in the Semi-finals at 12.05.

Sunday sees the slim chance of a GB medal when Andrew Musgrave (no 15) competes in the Cross-country Skiathlon.The GB team have been training with the Norwegians to improve their technique and stamina. Musgrave finished 7th 4 years ago and, on his day, must have a podium chance.

Sisters Leonie and Makayla Gerken Schofield get another chance to reach the women's moguls final at 10.00. Makayla currently lies 12th with Leonie 23rd. To be honest, I've no idea how the qualification system works, so we'll just have to wait and see who makes the Finals, set for lunchtime-ish.

[ritchiebaby]

Right, first things first - the good news is that GB have qualified for the Curling Semi-finals after a day that saw them scrape past China 6-5 with a shaky performance, then fall to a dominant Norway 2-6 despite a decent performance. That puts GB in a 4-way tie on 5 wins along with Canada, Norway and Sweden, all behind a superb Italy, who are still unbeaten on 8 wins. Italy have, of course qualified, but the order of the other 3 positions is still to be clarified.

GB have beaten Canada and Sweden and are guaranteed to be in the top 4. Norway have beaten Sweden and GB and are also certain to have qualified. Now, Canada have beaten only Norway of the tied teams and must win tomorrow against Italy to be sure of qualification, as Sweden, who have completed their games have already beaten Canada.

Italy will find out now that the hard work begins tomorrow afternoon as there is no room for error from then on.

GB play United States tomorrow at 01.05 and then move to one of the Semi-finals at 12.05. Bruce and Jen have struggled at times and have room for improvement, but they both have huge experience at this discipline and that will come in useful.

In other news, Makayla Gerken Schofield finished in an excellent 8th position in the Women's Moguls, being the first Briton to qualify for a Moguls Final. "I am struggling to believe it," Gerken Schofield told BBC Sport. "I had so much fun out there. Eighth place is absolutely incredible. It has been a while since I enjoyed skiing but tonight felt incredible. Skiing those bumps, just the feeling... I have no words. I don't know how we (the family) are going to celebrate. It all still feels so surreal. My brother (Tom, who missed out on qualifying for Beijing in the men's event) is probably jumping around in the living room with my parents because I have so many messages. I will probably call them and there might be a few tears."

Andrew Musgrave finished a decent 17th in the Men's Cross-country Skiathlon, which he described as being a brutal course.

Rupert Staudinger held his form to be officially placed 23rd in the Mental Tea-tray event, and has improved from 33rd in the 2018 Olympics.

[Lord Snooty]

Good news, Ritchie. Crammy just told us on the telly, but you explained it better.

[ritchiebaby]

Thanks, Snooty. Crammy should stick to the Great North Run - just my opinion, of course - and he was babbling on about being positive and negative, which seemed to mystify Bruce and Jen, as well as me.

Anyway, tomorrow is a big day for a few Brits. In the Women's Freeski Big Air event at 01.05, Katie Summerhayes (No 17) is 13th to start and Kirsty Muir (No 12) is 15th. In the equivalent Men's event at 05.30, James Woods (No 16) is 27th away. Only the top 12 go through to the Finals on Tuesday after 3 Qualification Runs tomorrow.

In Long Track Speed Skating, Ellia Smeding competes in the Women's 1500m at 08.30 tomorrow. For those with long memories, this is the event where long and smooth strides are the order of the day and where the skaters change lanes halfway through the race (I think). Ellia (not married, but partner of Cornelius Kersten, also at Beijing for GB) starts the event in the inner lane against Yu Ting Huang from Chinese Taipei.

It should have been a big day for Alex Tilley in the Women's Giant Slalom, but that event has been re-scheduled to a future day/time due to weather/snow conditions. Just as a matter of interest, the Men's Downhill has also been re-scheduled and this delays Ireland's Jack Gower's appearance. His father's cousin is David Gower, one of England's greatest cricketers. It's amazing what you can find on t'interweb.

[St Charles Owl]

Was watching the Italy v Sweden in the curling, excellent match that went down to the last stone!! Question though, they referred to the teams playing the Power Play, can you explain what that is because they didn’t give us any clue on the commentary??

[ritchiebaby]

G'day (I'm not sure what time zone you're in SCO) everyone. To pick up on SCO's question, the Power Play is when the 2 pre-set stones are placed to one side of the ice sheet to leave the centre open. The first player can then either draw to that side to lie shot or lie short on the centre line to guard the centre. Normally the pre-set stones are placed on the centre line. Each team has one Power Play per game, but they don't have to use it.

GB set themselves up for their Semi-final by beating USA 8-4 early this morning. In the same session, Italy beat Canada 8-7, allowing Sweden to claim the 4th Qualification place. The Semi-finals are Norway v GB and Italy v Sweden, both at 12.05. Due to my own commitments, I won't be back on today, so best of luck to GB. Come on!!!

Despite what the Olympic website showed yesterday, the Alpine Skiing went ahead as planned. Alex Tilley finished 22nd in the Women's Giant Slalom over 5 seconds behind the winner. Ireland's Jack Gower finished 31st in the Men's Downhill just under 5 seconds behind the winner.

In the Women's Freeski Big Air Qualifiers, Kirsty Muir finished 7th and will feature in the Finals tomorrow at 02.00. Katie Summerhayes finished in an infuriating 13th place and misses out. In the Men's Event, James Woods finished 30th following 3 poor Qualification runs.

Ellia Smeding finished in 27th place in the Women's 1500m Speed Skating where Ireen Wust of Netherlands won a record 5 Gold Medals in 5 Games.

[ritchiebaby]

Well, I'm back earlier than expected, still wondering why GB didn't either draw up against the 2 Norwegian stones at the back during the Norway Power Play or try to take them both out about halfway through the end. The resulting 3 gave the Norwegians the advantage which they used to full effect with a draw with their last stone to win the game. Italy continued their juggernaut (I know it's not Italian!) fashion through all the other teams with a 8-1 demolition of Sweden in the other Semi-final. Tomorrow's Bronze Medal Game between GB and Sweden is at 06.05, with the Gold Medal game between Italy and Norway at 12.05.

Kirsty Muir will be in her Freestyle Final at 02.00, when she will start 6th of the 12.

In the Cross-country Skiing Men's Sprint Free Qualification, James Clugnet is due to set off at 08.54.45, followed by Andrew Young 1 minute later. I say Sprint, but the course is still 1.5km long. The top 30 will qualify for the later Quarter-finals.

The previously mentioned Cornelius Kersten is in the 4th Heat of the Men's 1500m Speed Skating which starts at 10.30.

[Lord Snooty]

Well this bronze medal match isn't going well.

8-1 down at half time to Sweden.

[ritchiebaby]

It didn't really get much better. 3-9 down after only 6 ends prompted a concession from Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds. I must say Almida De Val, often the weaker link, played a tremendous game and finished with an amazing 100%. Italy once again powered home with an 8-5 win against Norway in the Gold Medal Game. Taking control early on, the Italians were 6-2 up after 4 ends and never looked like allowing the Norwegians back in to the game.
GOLD - Italy
SILVER - Norway
BRONZE - Sweden

Kirsty Muir finished an excellent 5th in her Big Air Final and will no doubt be a big medal hope in her next event, the Slopestyle, at the weekend.

Cornelius Kersten finished 19th in the Men's 1500m Skating event.

GB's Cross-country Skiers were eliminated at the Qualification stage, with Andrew Young in 36th, one second behind the last qualifier, and James Clugnet in 40th, a further second down.

I've never had a chance to look out any information for tomorrow's events, other than to say that Amos Mosaner of Italy and Oskar Eriksson of Sweden are straight back into action with the Men's Curling Teams at 12.05. Magnus Nedregotten of Norway is only the alternate player for Norway and Bruce Mouat gets a day off, as does Jen Dodds with the GB Women's Team. So I've cheated a bit with my copy and paste from the BBC website.

Highlights

Women's snowboard cross brings one of Britain's biggest medal prospects in Beijing. Charlotte Bankes is the world champion in a guaranteed crowd-pleaser of an event, in which athletes go toe-to-toe down a course of bumps and jumps, often with spectacular consequences. Bankes' win in 2021 wasn't a one-off, either - she won silver in 2019 and is this season's World Cup points leader. France's Chloe Trespeuch will be a close rival in Beijing, as will Lindsey Jacobellis, still a regular podium occupant for the US after making her Olympic debut in 2006 (where she took silver after an infamous late fall while leading). Head-to-head racing begins at 06:30, and the final will take place shortly after 07:45.

At the start of January, Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish a World Cup slalom for the first time in four years. If that (plus her fourth-place finish in this event four years ago, and her early exit from the giant slalom earlier this week) makes you think her rivals have a shot, bear in mind Shiffrin recovered from that DNF to win another World Cup slalom two days later, breaking the record for the most World Cup wins in a single event. Frida Hansdotter, who won in 2018, has since retired. Slovakia's Petra Vlhova is one of few athletes capable of stopping Shiffrin. Racing starts at 02:15 with the climax expected at about 07:15. Charlie Guest and Alex Tilley ski for GB.

James Woods has been gradually closing in on an Olympic medal for GB. At Sochi 2014 he was fifth in freestyle skiing's slopestyle event. In Pyeongchang four years later, he upgraded that to fourth. How about Beijing? Woods is primarily associated with slopestyle but he has three X Games big air medals to his name. In 2019 Norway's Birk Ruud, 21, became the second athlete to win back-to-back X Games big air gold and is a name to watch on the sport's Olympic debut (from 03:00).

Brit watch

Short track speed skating involves GB's Kathryn Thomson in the women's 1,000m heats (11:44) and Farrell Treacy is expected to line up in the men's 1500m (from 11:00, final 13:20). Ten of hosts China's 13 Winter medals in Olympic history have come in short track, and while 2018 champion Wu Dajing has struggled for form lately, rising star Ren Ziwei has a shot at gold in the 1500m.

World watch

The men's ice hockey tournament begins, again without many of the world's leading players as the NHL has withdrawn its athletes for the second Olympics in a row. Last time that was to the benefit of Russia's players, who won gold in Pyeongchang. The Russian Olympic Committee team open this year's tournament against Switzerland (08:40).

Every four years, there are some Olympic certainties. The organisers will have to use artificial snow to make a venue work (this year? Check). There will be a lot of curling (check). And nobody will be able to fully comprehend luge doubles. Luge has been a traditional winter sport in Austria and Germany for centuries, and the two-man event has been a competitive discipline for more than 100 years. But one man lying down on another (there is no women's event) and the two hurling themselves down an ice chute remains a unique spectacle. It's on from 12:20. Germany has a team of people entirely named Tobias - Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt - who won gold in 2014 and 2018, but compatriots Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken may be this year's favourites. Latvian brothers Andris Sics and Juris Sics have a chance.

Mixed doubles curling gives way to the beginning of the men's tournament. Britain aren't in action on the opening day so neutrals may prefer to check in on Norway v Switzerland (12:05), not least to see which trousers the Norwegians have brought this year.

Expert knowledge

Nordic combined begins with the individual Gundersen normal hill/10km event from 07:00. If that last sentence makes no sense, it's an event that combines two Nordic sports: ski jumping, then cross-country skiing. 'Gundersen' refers to the Gundersen method, developed by Norway's Gunder Gundersen, which translates ski jumping performance into a head start in the cross-country skiing. It's basically skiing's answer to cricket's Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. Athletes jump on the normal hill, rather than the large hill, then the cross-country ski lasts for 10km. Simple.