It is a big year for Great Britain’s Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson: Not only they will compete at the ISU European Championships in Sheffield next week on home ice but they are headed as medal contenders into the Olympic Winter Games in Milan in February. 

This popular team has made huge progress. Four years ago, they finished a respectable 10^th in their Olympic debut. Meanwhile they have collected two silver and one bronze medal at the ISU European Championships and they are the reigning ISU World bronze medalists. Fear & Gibson are the first British skaters to win a World medal since the legendary Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean were ISU World Champions back in 1984.

Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson (GBR) have made huge progress Photo ©ISU

High hopes

Hopes are high after Fear & Gibson claimed bronze at the ISU Grand Prix Final in December, the last meet of the top skaters of the World before the Olympic Games. 

“We always try to be very present and take one competition at a time,” Fear said after winning the ISU Grand Prix NHK Trophy. “Especially in an Olympic season it's so easy to just focus on the Olympics but we have like six competitions before that and we don't want to miss those. We want to enjoy it and savor every second but there's that extra magic in that Olympic season and that ambition, that hope, that drive and it's just added fuel to the fire,” she added. 

“If I think back to four years ago the Olympics was such a huge thing,” Gibson recalled. “It was during COVID so it was even more heightened - you just want to make it there. Our biggest focus was just to get there and become Olympians but this time it doesn't feel so much pressure.” 

The dancers feed off the excitement and their emotions when competing.

“Nerves and excitement, it's all that extra juice that you can use and channel into the performance,” Fear noted.  “I think we've become friends with however we feel at competition over the years. I used to be scared of how I felt: oh my gosh, this is bad. What's going to happen? Whereas now it's like, okay, we've got a lot of extra energy that we can channel into our performance that we don't usually have in training. The more we compete, the more we get to practice that. So it's really just one competition at a time and getting used to that sensation.”

Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson (GBR) feed off their excitement while performing Photo ©ISU

Looking forward to a new Olympic experience 

Milano Cortina will be different from Beijing 2022, where the Olympic competition felt like a practice session in front of almost empty tribunes. Only some athletes, media representatives and a few other people were allowed to watch on site because of the pandemic. Families and friends were not able to travel to Beijing. 

“Friends, family, everything - it's going to be so much more special,” Gibson said. “All of the fans and the people coming from around the world to visit the Olympics and to watch. I'm really looking forward to that portion of it as well and also being way more experienced to deal with the occasion itself.”

Fear agreed. “I love Italy, full stop, so I'm just so excited that it's there,” she shared with a laugh. “To share it with family will be so incredibly special and just that universality of the Olympic Games is so tangible. It's something that brings everyone together and to be able to feel that and be the ones performing will be very special.”

In Milan, a full arena, cheering fans, a festive atmosphere await and the dancers are eager to delve into it and show what they have been working on for so many years day in, day out. The ultimate goal is to feel “total pride and satisfaction in what we do, letting it be exactly what we've trained, letting ourselves show up and be our best and soak it in and enjoy living our dream out there, “ Lilah said. 

The ISU European Championships provide the perfect build up for the Games for Fear & Gibson. To compete on home ice in Great Britain as a gold medal contender means a lot. Torvill & Dean were the last British skaters to earn a European title and that was back 32 years ago in 1994.

A perfect fit for the Olympic season

The programs are a perfect fit this season: Spice Girls in the Rhythm Dance and Scottish music in the Free Dance. 

Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson (GBR) wanted to be "as patriotic as possible" with their program choices Photo ©ISU

“Our goal was to be as patriotic as possible given it is an Olympic season and we have the honor of having the European Championships in Sheffield which we're really looking forward to,” Fear shared. “Obviously with the 90s theme as a British team the first thing that came to mind was Spice Girls and I think we would have gotten in trouble if we didn't pursue that route. We are huge fans of that group. All the different personalities within the Spice Girls and their courageous individuality is something that really inspires us. 

“Then I skate with a Scottish partner who's very proud to be a Scotsman. We have always wanted to do a Scottish program and then this year finally felt like the right time to do so, to use our dynamic and entertaining quality as a team but something that's a little bit different for us but still true to who we are. We just love both programs and are really proud to show them,” she continued. 

“Every year we always try to bring something that is true to us, which maybe doesn't seem correct for the skating world or aligns with other programs from our school or whatever, but we choose firstly for us,” Gibson pointed out. “It's always a collaboration of what we think will work and that's what makes the best program every single year. As Lilah said earlier, we've tried the Scottish program in the past, just even to find the music and it didn't work. This year it was a breeze, so it tells you year on year things just work at the right time. It was an exciting process and very enjoyable and fast as well.”

To bring these programs to Sheffield is something the ice dancers have been waiting for.

 “It's such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to skate for a home crowd,” Fear said. “We've witnessed it so many times at Europeans with all of our competitors and been so happy for them and felt the electricity of the crowd. To know that we will get that, it's so emotional already and we're just so proud to represent Great Britain in Great Britain. 

“We are really passionate about using it as an opportunity for young people, older people, to start skating because for us, it was that up-close exposure to Europeans all those years ago in Sheffield (in 2012). I was a flower girl, Lewis was there, and we got to see it up-close and it really makes a difference. It’s a huge mission of ours to get people inspired to start to do the life that we love.”

Now there is one thing that everyone is waiting to find out – will Scotsman Lewis Gibson finally wear a kilt in the Free Dance?