Emma Smith
BBC Sport at Milano Ice Skating Arena

After one of the most dramatic figure skating programs in Olympic history, tonight brings the final night of competition.

We had the close finish of the team event, the heartache of Fear and Gibson, the shock of Malinin, the beauty of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara in the pairs.

And now, we have perhaps the most exciting event of all - the women's free skate, where you could not pick a winner from four or five of the best athletes ever to compete.

This is one you cannot miss.

Image source, Getty Images

Either the USA or Canada have won all seven previous gold medals awarded in women's ice hockey at the Winter Olympics so it is no surprise to see those two nations competing for gold again in 2026.

Canada have been champions on five occasions, including in Beijing four years ago, but it has been the United States who have dominated this competition so far.

They have won all six of their matches to date - scoring 31 times and conceding just once.

One of their group-stage victories was a 5-0 success against Canada.

Earlier, Switzerland claimed the bronze medal with an overtime victory against Sweden.

Emma Smith
BBC Sport in Milan

Image source, Getty Images

I am always intrigued by sportspeople who compete as a couple, working together under such pressure.

"I don't think there's a harder relationship in the world to have - you are not business partners, you are more than that," said James Hernandez, who competed in ice dance for Team GB with partner Phebe Bekker.

"You can even mirror each other's mood - I come in thinking I was in a decent mood, and suddenly I'm not!

"It is incredible how much you have to look at yourself, and how strong your relationship has to be not to be pulled around by the stimulus an event like this has. It's tough and we make sure not to shy away from tough conversations."

Bekker said: "Looking inwards, one thing that has helped our relationship is looking after ourselves.

"We need to be in the best mental headspace to bring our best to the team. If we feel like the other one is slacking, or if we are ourselves, we can butt heads and that's when problems start because that is not the respect we owe each other."

Ami Nakai of Japan goes into the free skate with the highest score on the leaderboard after a technically-packed performance in the short program.

The 17-year-old scored 78.71 to knock compatriot - and three-time world champion - Kaori Sakamoto into second, while Alysa Liu of the United States is in third.

There is though, still a very strong possibility of a Japanese clean sweep, as Mone Chiba is in fourth and just 2.59 points behind Liu.

Image source, Getty Images

Emma Smith
BBC Sport at Milano Ice Skating Arena

Among those in the audience tonight is former Wimbledon tennis champion Maria Sharapova, plus Inter Milan forward and France international Marcus Thuram.

His compatriot, Lorine Schild, will be first on the ice at about 18:08 GMT.

With the International Skating Union raising the minimum age for figure skating competitors from 15 to 17, it seemed like the era of Olympic child champions might be over.

Ami Nakai had other ideas. On Tuesday night, the 17-year-old - the youngest competitor in the women's event - stormed to the top after the short program.

You can watch her performance above ...

Emma Smith
BBC Sport in Milan

I caught up with British figure skaters Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez, who are still on a high after their Olympic debuts.

Bekker, 20, and 24-year-old Hernandez reached the final round of the ice dance competition, eventually finishing in 17th place.

“After the rhythm dance it was sheer elation, if you make one mistake there’s grounds for you not to make it through," Hernandez told me at Milano Ice Skating Arena, where they were in the stands to support team mates Ana Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby in the pairs.

"We had worked so hard on our free dance, it was built for Italy so we were desperate to make it through. After the rhythm dance finished, we were so pumped to have done ourselves and our team proud."

“This has been the reward for so many years of hard work," added Bekker. "The journey to get here is the true thing I will take away from the Olympic experience, it’s how we have got here is the exciting part. And to enjoy the fact we have done two good skates.”

Image source, Getty Images

The women's free skate will begin at 18:00 GMT.

The 24 figure skaters that are in tonight's final qualified through their short program score just a few days ago.

Tonight, they will dance their free skate, which allows them to showcase their strongest capabilities to their own choice of music.

Medals are determined by the combined score of the short program and free skate.

Image source, Getty Images

Great Britain's women needed all the cards to fall in their favour if they were going to reach the curling medal matches - and they very nearly did.

They held up their end of the bargain by beating hosts Italy in their final match, but a thrilling extra-end win for the USA against Switzerland left them outside the top four.

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

We'll be back at the Cortina Curling Stadium - half an hour later than scheduled - for the men's semi-finals.

If they win the repeat of last April's world final against Switzerland, Team GB's Scottish quartet will play in Saturday's gold-medal contest and would be guaranteed to at least match the silver they won in Beijing.

Lose, and they will go for bronze on Friday against whoever loses the other semi between Canada and Norway.

Get yourself squared up, and we'll see you in a bit...

Ski mountaineering made its Winter Olympic debut earlier today and Switzerland's Marianne Fatton became the sport's first Olympic gold medallist.

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Livigno

Ok, granted I'm from Yorkshire and live in Manchester, but I have never seen as much snow as the powder that has fallen on Livigno over the last week or so. Today, that has reached new levels.

It's two foot deep in places, piled up on top of buildings and cars, and is a nightmare to walk on and through.

The good news is that, for the first time today, it has just about stopped snowing, and as it stands the women's halfpipe qualifiers are still on tonight.

At the snow park, they are busy clearing as much of it as they can to make it safe for everyone. The added difficulty is that it's a bit of an uphill trek to the halfpipe, so they're having to carve out safe walkways for fans and media alike.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a quick reminder of Thursday's action so far:

• Italy's defeat by Switzerland in the men's curling secured Great Britain a semi-final place. They will face the unbeaten Swiss at 18:35 GMT.
• GB women beat Italy 7-4 in the curling but suffer agonising elimination as USA dramatically beat Switzerland 7-6 in extra end.
• Norway's Jens Luras Oftebro completes a hat-trick of golds with victory in the Nordic combined team sprint.
• World champion Marianne Fatton of Switzerland beats France's Emily Harrop for the women's ski mountaineering title, while Spain's Oriol Cardona Coll wins men's gold.
• China's Ning Zhongyan wins speed skating gold in the men's 1500m, with American Jordan Stolz - who was chasing a third gold of these Olympics - taking silver.
• Switzerland won their women's bronze medal match against Sweden in the final minute of overtime.
• The weather has continued to cause disruption, with the men's halfpipe qualifiers postponed until Friday. The women's event is currently scheduled to go ahead (18:30), with British medal hope Zoe Atkin in action.

We have two more golds up for grabs this evening and the action on BBC will be split between four events, which are all ongoing.

• Curling semi-final: Great Britain's men v Swizerland
• Women's ice hockey final - USA v Canada
• Women's figure skating free skate programme
• Women's free-style skiing halfpipe qualification

Ning Zhongyan screamed with delight when his gold medal was confirmed and is clearly shedding a few tears as the realisation of his achievement sinks in.

He'd already taken bronze medals in the team pursuit and the 1000m, but this is the one he wanted - a first Olympic gold.

Image source, Getty Images

Team GB

Team GB's Rebecca Morrison, speaking to BBC Sport: "Everyone has been amazing and I think we have felt the support these last few days.

"We knew we needed to win to stand a chance and everyone has got behind us."