Sweden level their nail-biting bronze medal match with China at 3-3 going into the eighth end.

‏Maggi PB tweets:, external All ready for today - except I don't have a proper broom! #lovecurling

Image source, Getty Images

Chile's Stephanie Joffroy is the latest to fall in foggy, drizzly conditions in the women's ski cross quarter-finals, with what looks like another nasty leg injury.

4. Curling has featured in many television programmes and films, including the Beatles movie Help! where the Fab Four play the game, only for one of the stones to be booby-trapped by a bomb. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond walks past girls playing curling at the top of Piz Gloria - Blofeld's mountain-top retreat.

China and Sweden are locked in a tense battle for bronze in the men's curling. China scored two points in the sixth end to take a 3-2 lead.

Distressing scenes in the women's ski cross quarter-finals as Germany's Anna Woerner suffers a horrendous-looking knee injury after a high-speed fall. She is currently being treated on the course and will soon be lifted away in a stretcher.

Paris Wheels tweets:, external Curling, librarian style! #lovecurling

British curling skip David Murdoch has a traumatic past. At the age of 10 he watched from his father's car as Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the streets of his home town of Lockerbie. "I was about 300 yards away and I saw it come down," he said. "I was in a car driving back home," Murdoch recalls. "I was on an adjacent street. It was just like a bomb going off." Read more in Rob Hodgetts' feature.

Louise:, external I have loved the curling and the BBC Sport coverage. Come on boys, win gold!

Tracy Evans:, external Yay! It's Friday, and I can't wait to watch the men's curling team!

Rob Hodgetts
BBC Sport in Sochi

Image source, Getty Images

"Class is coming to the fore early in the 1/8s finals for the ladies' ski cross. Big names such as Kelsey Serwa, Fanny Smith, Katrin Mueller and Marielle Thompson are all safely through. Some cracking shoulder to shoulder racing, too. It's not an event for good manners."

3. Curling stones are made of granite and weigh between 17.24 kg and 19.96 kg. The granite comes from two sources - the Scottish island of Ailsa Craig and the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales. Stones for the Sochi Winter Olympics are manufactured by Kays of Scotland, who have been making curling stones since 1851 and have the exclusive rights to the Ailsa Craig granite.

The sweeping brushes used to be made of corn strands and were similar to household brooms. Broom heads are now made of fabric, hog hair or horse hair with nylon fabric covering the brush head.

XIBO Marketing tweet:, external Getting pumped in the office! #lovecurling

Meanwhile, in the men's bronze medal curling match, Sweden lead China 2-1 at half-time. And just in case you had forgotten, you watch Great Britain's men against Canada in the gold medal final at 13:30 GMT.

Not for the first time during the Sochi Games, I find myself dumbstruck by the awesome spectacle of a new sport. This time it is women's ski cross and the incredible sight of three athletes hurtling down a slope together, bobbing over moguls and leaping over jumps through the sleet. The round of 32 is currently in full swing on this live video stream and we've even just had a bit of pushing and shoving between two of the women out on the course.

Nick Hope
BBC Sport in Sochi

"Been catching up with International Paralympic Committee [IPC] President Sir Philip Craven this morning, who has been checking out the Sochi venues ahead of next month's Games.

"He is confident Russia will put on a "spectacular" Paralympics.

"'They have done things with the facilities which could only be done in Russia, it's phenomenal and the feeling I have from President Putin is that everyone here is as passionate about the Paralympics being a success as they are the Olympics,' he told BBC Sport.

"The Sochi Winter Paralympics begin 7 March."

American television host Ellen DeGeneres tweets:, external My staff was glued to the Olympic hockey game. Congratulations, Canadians! You gave an epic performance.

Enjoy highlights of that thrilling match on the BBC Sport website.

Image source, Getty Images

2. Celebrity curling fans include George Clooney, who reportedly got hooked on the sport while filming the movie Perfect Storm in Canada in 2000, and rocker Bruce Springsteen, who, according to the Toronto Star, loves to stop off for a game when he tours with the E Street Gang.

Paul Williams:, external The biggest day of the Olympics.

Mike Burton Phillipson:, external Wishing the very best of luck to Elise Christie today.

Image source, PA

We're in the fourth end of the men's curling bronze medal match with China and Sweden currently tied at 1-1. Reigning world champions Sweden lost 6-5 to Britain in the semi-finals, while China went down 10-6 to Canada. Watch it live on BBC Two or on our live stream.

Rob Hodgetts
BBC Sport in Sochi

"Ski cross seeding runs over. Pace set by Canada's Kelsey Serwa from France's Ophelie David and another Canadian Marielle Thompson. Fancied Swiss skier Fanny Smith was 16th. Doesn't really matter a jot, of course. It's in the hurly-burly of the four-woman knockout finals that the real mettle will be tested. Mettle for metal, you could say."