Image source, Reuters

After five skiers, Switzerland's Fabienne Suter, who went off first, retains the lead with a time of 1:41.94. You can follow the action on BBC Two or in the video stream at the top of the page. The cheat sheet on Alpine Skiing is also worth a look, too.

Britain's four-time Olympian Emma Carrick-Anderson on the women's downhill: "It is a difficult race to call as there have been five different winners of the training runs, if you count the combined race - Fabienne Suter, Nicole Hosp, Dominique Gisin, Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden and Anna Fenninger. Maria Hoefl-Riesch and Julia Mancuso won't be far away either."

Rob Hodgetts
BBC Sport at the Rosa Khutor alpine centre in Sochi

"So, who's going to win the women's downhill, I hear you cry. Well, with defending champion Lindsey Vonn not here after failing to recover from knee surgery in time, it is an open race. Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch, the World Cup leader, has already bagged a Sochi gold in the combined so the pressure is off. American Julia Mancuso, bronze medallist in the combined, was runner-up to Vonn in Vancouver and has a knack of performing on the big stage.

"Austrians Anna Fenninger, combined silver medallist Nicole Hosp and Elisabeth Goergl, third in Vancouver, and Switzerland's Lara Gut should also be in the frame.

"Austria has twice done the men's/women's double - with Egon Zimmerman and Christl Haas in 1964 and Leonhard Stock and Annemarie Moser-Proell in 1980."

I've been skiing, many of you have probably been, too, but I suspect our pootling down the slops bears little resemblance to the breath-taking speeds achieved by Chemmy Alcott and co.

"Imagine driving along a motorway at 70mph and sticking your head out of the window," said Alcott of the experience. "Then add to that weaving past the cars in front and occasionally jumping over a few. It's that fast, that exhilarating and you need that much focus."

Vancouver 2010 skeleton champion Amy Williams, external bags a prime spot ahead of the women's downhill skiing: "Sun shinning brightly here at the women's downhill skiing."

The downhill will be without two of its star attractions in Sochi. Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn pulled out at the start of the year as her attempt to overcome a succession of injuries failed. Meanwhile, world downhill champion Marion Rolland of France is out after she ruptured a knee ligament in a training crash last September.

Image source, Getty Images

Frenchwoman Marie Marchand-Arvier almost crosses her skies, does a good job recovering, but catches the edges and can do nothing to stop her falling and bounces off into the safety netting. Ouch. The medics are with her in super quick time and after a couple of minutes, she's up on her feet and glides to safety unaided.

Rob Hodgetts
BBC Sport at the Rosa Khutor alpine centre in Sochi

"Morning, and welcome to Rosa Khutor alpine centre for the women's downhill. It's a bluebird day - not a cloud in sight. Good for the tan, not so good for the snow. It's hanging on, but it's getting very soft. The women race on a different course to the men and it is a 2713m shot with a drop of 790m.

"Here's Britain's four-time Olympian Emma Carrick-Anderson's view: 'It has a technical top section with lots of turns lower down, but the emphasis will be on gliding, particularly as you come out of the Tunnel Jump.

"'I'm a little bit worried about the snow on the bottom sections. That's why they didn't hold the fifth training run as the aspect of the last jump is very similar to the training hill and that is just mush. The right wax today will be crucial, otherwise you could come into the last section and virtually stall. The key part of the course will be the exit of Forest Drop into the Bolshoi Traverse, a big fall-away going into the Tunnel Jump. If you lose speed coming into the flats, you're not getting it back.

"'The jumps are not massive, and they even shaved bottom one down after the last training run, which some of the skiers wanted and some, such as Maria Hoefl-Riesch, weren't happy with. She wanted it faster.'"

The women's downhill kicks us off, with Fabienne Suter of Switzerland having just completed the first run of the day. Each skier gets just one run, with the best time winning. Chemmy Alcott is 35th up, favourite Maria Hoefl-Riesch goes 20th. You can follow the action in the video stream at the top of the page or on BBC Two right now.

Morning all and welcome to day five of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. High altitude, high speed, high stakes and high adrenaline - it's no wonder alpine skiing is the most high-profile sport at the Games. It's a simple format: the quickest to get from the top to the bottom of the mountain course wins gold. Easy.

Image source, AP

After 42 bone-breaks and four career-threatening operations, it's little wonder Britain's Chemmy Alcott describes herself as accident-prone. Dubbed the 'bionic woman' after a huge crash in 2010, Alcott's suffered a further break last August and was selected for her fourth Olympics in Sochi despite being unable to prove her fitness.

Having already decided to call it quits after these Games, can the 31-year-old conjure up a fairytale finish?