Britain’s Winter Olympic campaign finally took off in Beijing as teen ski star Kirsty Muir hit the heights and curlers Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds swept to victory on ice.
Elsewhere, missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has not only met with IOC President Thomas Bach inside the Games bubble - but allegedly been to watch the curling.
The third full day of competition began in the Ice Cube with Mouat and Dodds completing their round-robin campaign with an 8-4 defeat of the United States.
Already guaranteed a semi-final place and a shot at a medal, the Scottish pair produced their best form of the week to win for the sixth time in nine games.
It was a timely uptick in performance as they now face a lunchtime last-four clash against Norway, who made light work of them yesterday.
Dodds said: “We didn’t play our best against them but we can take a lot of confidence from that [USA] performance. It’s going to be a battle out there."
Muir, 17, showed how to deliver when it matters with a brilliant display on freestyle skiing’s most spectacular stage.
The young Scot held her nerve to qualify easily on the 60-metre Big Air jump and go into tomorrow’s final with a decent medal chance.
Muir did the hard work with an 89.25 score on her first jump, following up with scores of 67 and 68.25 - but team mate and three-time Olympian Katie Summerhayes missed out by one place after finishing 13th.
In one of the biggest shocks of the Games so far Mikaela Shiffrin, favoured by some to win medals in five alpine events, failed to finish in the giant slalom.
"I am not going to cry about this because that is just wasting energy, but I’m never going to get over this,” the American said.
“I have never got over any (disappointments in big races). That heartbreak never goes away and I think that's what drives me to keep working.”
Away from the cameras the International Olympic Committee claim to have kept their promise and met with Shuai inside the Games bubble.
Shuai, who made then apparently withdrew sexual assault allegations against a top Chinese politician last November, joined Bach and IOC Athletes’ Commission chair Kirsty Coventry for dinner.
Little has been seen of Shuai since the claims were briefly made public on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
In an interview with French sports newspaper L'Equipe she claimed it had all been a "misunderstanding".
"I don't want the meaning of this post to be twisted anymore," she said. "And I don't want any further media hype around it.
"Sexual assault? I never said anyone sexually assaulted me in any way. And I never disappeared. Everyone could see me."
Actually they couldn't.
Her comments are unlikely to bring an end to the matter as a condition of the interview was that she received the questions in advance, answered only in Chinese and the piece be published without comment.
The Women's Tennis Association has suspended tournaments in China due to its concerns over Peng's safety.
