History-maker Madi Rowlands was “stoked” with ski halfpipe gold as she became the first Team GB athlete to win a Youth Olympic medal on snow.
Rowlands dominated the field throughout and put down the best two runs of the competition at Oslo’s Vinterpark, beating silver medallist Paula Cooper’s best effort of 79.00.
The 15-year-old notched 83.20 in her opening run before bettering that with 88.60 her second and the Maidstone skier, who competes again in Friday’s slopestyle, was suitably delighted with gold.
“I couldn’t be happier. It’s just so overwhelming,” said Rowlands.
“It was nerve-wracking to wait for the others to finish but I felt like I had done enough.”
“I was so stoked with that first run and to land it like I did meant I was able to relax more and not be so nervous in the second and third.
“There are two main competitions I ultimately want to get to, the X Games and then the Olympics. This is a great step towards that and I’m just so stoked to win.”
Team GB's curlers booked their place in the knock-out stages of the mixed team event after double Scandinavian success on day three. The quartet first saw off host nation Norway 9-3 before a superb victory 8-2 against Sweden in the evening session had skip Ross Whyte eyeing up the latter stages.
“To have got one result from today would have been a good but to get two wins is happy days,” said Whyte.
“We played really well all day. Teamwork has been really good and these results take the pressure off the final day somewhat.
“We need to try to continue our run and put pressure on everyone else but it’s a happy camp tonight.”
At the Lillehammer Olympic Sliding Centre, the luge events got underway as Team GB’s Lucas Gebauer-Barrett finished with his best ever result, coming in 10th in the men’s singles.
Gebauer-Barrett hit a max speed of 72.4mph on his way to a combined time of 1:37.471 from his two runs, 2.162 seconds off Latvian gold medallist Kristers Aparjods.
“It feels really good to get top 10. That’s my best result ever so I’m really happy with it,” said Gebauer-Barrett.
“My first run wasn’t on point but I really threw down the second and it was a really good run.
“It’s been a good week preparing and I’ve spent a lot of time, either on the track, the gym or doing the runs in my head and I think that really paid off.
“I’m loving the Games so far. We’re such a small team so we’re really close and everyone’s supporting each other.”
Elsewhere, Yasmin Cooper skied superbly to finish in 13th place in the ladies’ alpine combined, while Iain Innes couldn’t follow up his strong showing in yesterday’s Super-G as he failed to finish the slalom run after sitting in 35th following the Super-G (1:16.32).
Cooper finished the Super-G in 19th (1:17.49) and came down the slalom 16th quickest (45.40) to finish with a combined time of 2:02.89.
In the ice hockey skills challenge, Verity Lewis missed out on the chance to compete in the finals despite picking up a personal best in each of the six skills as she finished 10th at the end of the qualification rounds.
Lewis, who was just one point off qualifying, was unlucky to be drawn in the opening round of the puck control challenge against the eventual winner Martina Fedorova. This followed a third place finish in the passing accuracy and fourth in skating agility, which had positioned the Berkshire athlete in with a chance of making the top eight before coming up against the highly fancied Russian.
Curling: Curling Mixed Team GBR vs EST, 11:30 GMT, Curling Hall; Amy Bryce, Callum Kinnear, Mili Smith, Ross Whyte Curling Mixed Team GBR vs CZE, 18:30 GMT, Curling Hall; Amy Bryce, Callum Kinnear, Mili Smith, Ross Whyte
Ski Cross: Ladies' Ski Cross, 12:20 GMT; Isobel Brown