Great Britain’s women curlers will have a shot at an Olympics medal after booking their place in Friday’s semi-finals.

But Britain’s men will have to negotiate a play-off against Switzerland on Thursday if they are to join them.

Skip Eve Muirhead steered her rink to a 6-5 win over Canada, who were eliminated as a result and feels Britain are gradually building momentum.

Eve Muirhead's Great Britain women's curling team have advanced to the semi-finals as they bid to improve on their bronze medal from four years ago
Eve Muirhead’s Great Britain women’s curling team have advanced to the semi-finals as they bid to improve on their bronze medal from four years ago (Mike Egerton/PA Images)

“It was a great team performance, it shows we have a lot of determination, a lot of patience and I’m really delighted to get the semi-final spot,” she said.

“The last few games we’ve got better and better and that’s important.”

After three straight wins, Kyle Smith’s men’s squad knew victory over the United States would secure a place in the last four, but they succumbed to a 10-4 defeat.

That means another victory over the Swiss is needed, Britain having beaten them already in their opening round-robin game.

Great Britain’s Mica McNeill (pilot) and Mica Moore compete in the women's bobsleigh at the Olympic Sliding Centre
Great Britain’s Mica McNeill (pilot) and Mica Moore compete in the women’s bobsleigh at the Olympic Sliding Centre (David Davies/PA Images)

Crowd-funded Great Britain bobsleigh duo Mica McNeill and Mica Moore, lying sixth after heats one and two, slipped to eighth after clocking 51.16 in heat three.

They held onto that position after their final heat, the highest-ever placing by a British women’s bobsleigh team at a Winter Olympics.

Gold went to Germany’s Mariama Jamanka, with the USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor taking silver and Canada’s Kallie Humphries the bronze.

Italy's Sofia Goggia won the women's downhill gold medal
Italy’s Sofia Goggia won the women’s downhill gold medal (David Davies/PA Images)

Lindsey Vonn described Sofia Goggia as “untouchable” after the Italian won women’s downhill gold.

Goggia, the World Cup series leader this season, won by 0.09 seconds from Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel as Vonn of the United States took bronze.

At 33, Vonn became the oldest women’s alpine skiing Olympic medal winner in what she says is her final Games.

Vonn, who has 81 World Cup wins to date,, said: “I skied really well, but I think Sofia is untouchable today.”

Evgenia Medvedeva set a figure skating short programme world record on Wednesday, but her mark was soon beaten by fellow Russian Alina Zagitova.

Medvedeva scored 81.61, but 15-year-old Zagitova was awarded 82.92 to lead the way. The concluding free skate takes place on Friday.

Billy Morgan squeezed through to the men’s Big Air snowboard final, but British team-mates Jamie Nicholls and Rowan Coultas are out.

Max Parrot of Canada led the way in qualifying from heat one with 92.50, as Coultas scored a best of 84.50 and Nicholls 81.25, to place eighth and 11th, respectively.

Only the top six from each heat qualified for the final and Morgan improved his mark to 90.50 with his second effort. He stayed sixth to narrowly qualify for Saturday’s final as New Zealand’s Carlos Garcia Knight led the way with 97.50.

Morgan revealed his build-up to qualification had been far from ideal as he woke up with a blocked ear that had to be syringed.

Canada’s Brady Leman won the men’s ski cross ahead of Switzerland’s Marc Bischofberger and Russian Sergey Ridzik.

The event saw several crashes and the Canadian Olympic Committee said Canadian Chris Del Bosco was taken to hospital with a suspected pelvic injury after losing control on a jump and landing hard on his right side.

British duo Andrew Musgrave and Andrew Young were sixth in their men’s cross country sprint free semi-final in a time of 16:30.62 and missed out on a final place.

In the women’s team sprint free Marit Bjoergen became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time as Norway took bronze behind the USA and Sweden. It was Bjoergen’s fourth medal at these Games and her 14th overall.