Canada wins four medals overnight in Beijing, bumping up total to 24

Canadian athletes were busy in Beijing on Friday, winning four medals — the country’s highest medal total in a single day so far in the Winter Olympics.

Canada’s medal count now sits at 24 — four gold, seven silver and 13 bronze.

Freestyle skiing: Canada earned two spots on the podium in the women’s freeski halfpipe event.

Cassie Sharpe (Comox, B.C.) took home a silver Friday, with Rachael Karker (Erin, Ont.) winning the bronze.

Neither woman could outpace China’s Eileen Gu, who claimed the gold.

In the men’s ski cross, Brady Leman (Calgary) finished second in the small final to place sixth overall.

Reece Howden (Cultus Lake, B.C.), Jared Schmidt (Ottawa) and Kevin Drury (Toronto) all were eliminated in the quarterfinal round.

Curling: The men’s team skipped by Brad Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.) bounced back after a disappointing semifinal loss to Sweden on Thursday and beat the United States 8-5 to win the bronze medal.

Gushue, Mark Nichols (St. John’s, N.L.), Brett Gallant (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) and Geoff Walker (Edmonton) trailed 5-4 after seven ends, but put up a deuce in the eighth and then stole two in the ninth. The Canadians ran the Americans out of rocks in the 10th.

Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat and Sweden’s Niklas Edin are to meet in the gold-medal game Saturday morning.

On the women’s side, Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead beat Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 12-11 in a semifinal and will face Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa in the final Saturday. Fujisawa upset Switzerland’s Alina Patz 8-6 in the other semi.

Speedskating: Laurent Dubreuil (Levis, Que.) raced to a silver in the men’s long-track 1,000 metres.

That came after he barely missed the podium earlier in the Games, with a fourth-place finish in the 500m.

Dubreuil was 0.40 seconds back of gold medallist Thomas Krol of the Netherlands in Friday’s event.

Connor Howe (Canmore, Alta.) finished 12th, with Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu (Sherbrooke, Que.) in 22nd.

Biathlon: Christian Gow (Calgary) finished 13th in the men’s 15-kilometre mass start, with Jules Burnotte (Sherbrooke, Que.) 18th and Scott Gow (Calgary) 25th.

Bobsleigh: The two-woman sled piloted by Christine de Bruin (Stony Plain, Alta.) was fourth after the first two heats of the four-run final.

Cynthia Appiah (Toronto) was eighth after the first two heats, while Melissa Lotholz (Barrhead, Alta.) was 16th.

The final two heats are set for Saturday morning.

The first two four-man heats are slated for Friday night Saskatchewan time, with the final two set for Saturday night.

Figure skating: Vanessa James (Montreal) and Eric Radford (Balmertown, Ont.) were 12th in the pairs short program, one spot ahead of Kirsten Moore-Towers (St. Catharines, Ont.) and Michael Marinaro (Sarnia, Ont.).

The free skate is set for Saturday morning.