• Briton finishes ninth after quarter-final defeat

• ‘Sorry, I was hoping to put on a better show’

Few sports at the Winter Olympics are more thrilling or turbulent than snowboard cross. The idea is simple. Four competitors, a steep mountain, ramps, and whoever gets down quickest to the bottom wins. But jeopardy lurks on every sharp turn and steep bank. And calamities are an unfortunate fact of life.

Team GB’s Charlotte Bankes knows this better than anyone. Four years ago in Beijing she arrived as a gold medal favourite only to leave in tears after finishing ninth. On the brightest of sunny days history repeated itself. Hopes. Dreams. Expectations. Another ninth-place finish. And more tears.

• Choi wins snowboard halfpipe title with third run

• American star takes silver behind strong first round

The snowfall coming down on Livigno Snow Park on Thursday night helped produce one of the bigger Olympic upsets in snowboard history, as Chloe Kim’s bid to become the first rider to win three consecutive Olympic halfpipe gold medals fell just short.

Kim finished with a best score of 88.00 from her opening run, settling for silver behind surprise winner Choi Gaon of South Korea, whose heroic third run after an early fall earned 90.25 and rewrote the Olympic record books. Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took bronze with 85.00.

• American looking to retain title she won in Beijing

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

• Winter Olympics: day six – live | And email Beau

Japan’s Sena Tomita is the defending bronze medalist. She also runs into difficulty and will not be counting this run.

23.50

With 13 medals through the first five days – surpassing their total at Turin 2006 – the Italians are the surprise stars of these Games. What’s different this time?

From Milan to Cortina and beyond, the star of the first Olympic weekend in Italy was … Italy.

The electric celebrations started Saturday in Bormio, close to the Swiss border, with a silver and bronze in the men’s downhill. They echoed a few hours later in Milan, where Francesca Lollobrigida set an Olympic record in women’s 3,000m speed skating for the host country’s first gold.