Kirsty Muir, Britain’s youngest Winter Olympian, made a stunning Games debut - but was still eclipsed by Chinese superstar Eileen Gu.
Muir soared to fifth place in freestyle skiing’s spectacular Big Air final at Shougang Park, a disused steelworks in Beijing.
The 17-year-old, dubbed a “once-in-a-generation” athlete, landed two of her three jumps, describing the experience as a “dream come true”.
But she had no answer to Gu, the American-born star who controversially switched allegiance to the land of her mother, in 2019.
The ‘snow princess’, as she is known over here, came up with the trick of her life - a four and a half turn 1620 - to leap from the bronze medal position and snatch gold on her final run.
Gu, 18, was watched by Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis player, making her second visit to the Games alongside IOC boss Thomas Bach.
The stadium roared its approval as the teen sensation was given a massive 94.50 score for a total of 18.25 and victory ahead of France's Tess Ledeux (187.50) and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud.
“That was the best moment of my life, the happiest,” she said, as Chinese social media site Weibo temporarily crashed under the weight of Gu-related tweets.
“I just cannot believe what just happened. Even if I didn’t land it I felt it would send a message out to the world and hopefully encourage more girls to break their own boundaries. That was my biggest goal.”
Muir shared her joy, saying: “I couldn't have hoped to have skied better today. I just wanted to go for it because I knew I’d be happiest with myself if I really went for it and I’m proud of myself for doing that.”
The contrast could not have been greater at the curling where Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds’ medal-quest came to grief.
Hours after blowing their semi-final against Norway with an uncharacteristically untidy finish, they were thrashed 9-3 by Sweden in the bronze medal match.
The Brits trailed 7-1 after three ends and were far enough adrift for the game to be conceded with two of the eight ends still to play.
“We were obviously disappointed last night but we felt we were in a good spot to win that bronze,” said Mouat, who now turns to the men’s event.
“We're just going to have to rebound as quickly as possible because both of us have really big weeks next week."
