Day 5 (9 February) highlights

Good morning from Beijing! It's a brand new day of action which gets underway in just under 15 minutes up in Zhangjiakou with the snowboard halfpipe qualifiers.

Here's what to expect today:

Even as fan-favourite figure skating takes a rest day on 9 February, there are six medal events in the other sports today, including the unpredictable chaos of women's snowboard cross (finals begin at 14:30). The men's freeski big air final (11:00) is another event sure to thrill the crowds and audiences.

Shaun White is due to begin the defence of his snowboard halfpipe title as qualifications get underway (12:30–14:10). Here are three other highlights we've picked out from Day 5:

Alpine skiing - All eyes on Shiffrin in favoured slalom event

The women's slalom (10:15, 13:45) is the day's alpine skiing event and everyone will be watching to see whether USA's Mikaela Shiffrin can regain her Olympic crown in this discipline.

Shiffrin was the 2014 Olympic slalom champion before surprisingly finishing fourth in PyeongChang in what is her favoured event. She is a four-time world champion in slalom and the bulk of her World Cup wins and podiums have come in this discipline.

Katharina Liensberger and Petra Vlhová will provide the sternest tests for the American.

Ice hockey - Men's tournament begins

The men's competition begins in ice hockey today. While it had been due to feature National Hockey League players for the first time since 2014, the League has since withdrawn from the competition after the pandemic caused a scheduling conflict.

The ROC team, with its Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) stars, opens proceedings against Switzerland (16:40). They will be one the medal favourites, with the team having won gold at PyeongChang 2018 as the Olympic Athletes from Russia.

Short track speed skating - Ren Ziwei aims for home gold

The top men's 1500m short track speed skater in the world right now is Ren Ziwei.

China's Ren, a relay silver medallist from 2018, won two of this season's four World Cup races to clinch overall victory in that discipline and he will no doubt have an eye on making the podium as that event reaches its final stages today.

Don't rule out Shaolin Sándor Liu either – the Hungarian of Chinese descent, who is also bound to gain support from the spectators, was fifth in the 2018 final.

Medal events

Alpine skiing

10:15–11:50: W slalom run 1; 13:45–15:29: W slalom run 2

Freestyle skiing

11:00–12:05: M freeski big air final

Luge

20:20–20:56: Doubles run 1; 21:35–22:14: Doubles run 2

Nordic combined

16:00–16:51: Individual Gundersen normal hill/10km ski jumping; 19:00–19:35: Individual Gundersen normal hill/10km cross-country

Snowboard

14:30–16:00: W snowboard cross 1/8 finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals, small final, big final

Short track speed skating

19:00–21:28: M 1500m quarter-finals, semi-finals, final B, final A