Heartbreak for British figure skaters Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson as they blow chance to emulate Torvill and Dean at the Winter Olympics
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were the latest Team GB athletes to be heartbroken at this year’s Winter Olympics as they missed out on a shot at the ice dance podium after a disappointing free dance.
The Team GB pair distinguished themselves in the first section of the competition, the rhythm dance, earning fourth place with their score of 85.47 for their energetic routine set to a Spice Girls medley.
But on Wednesday, a Scottish-themed routine which featured music from The Proclaimers as well as The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond was peppered with errors, and saw them finish ninth with a score of 118.85.
This brought their total to 204.66, which was only enough to see them finish seventh in the standings.
Fear in particular cut a devastated figure in the ‘kiss and cry’ as the couple waited for their scores, having lost her balance coming out of an early twizzle.
‘I can’t believe I just did that,’ Fear said when asked how she was feeling after the contest. ‘I feel so bad, so devastated.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were disappointed after their free dance in the ice dance final
The couple looked devastated as they waited for their scores on Wednesday evening
‘Horrible. I really am in shock, and I can’t believe it happened. I’m just replaying it in my head, and it’s such a shame, because I know what I’m capable of.
‘I just feel so bad. I don’t really have the words yet, and it’s going to be a while to process that. But I will persevere.
‘I’d say keep going,’ Fear said when asked what she would say to her eight-year-old self. ‘I need that myself right now.
‘She’d be really proud of me, and she’d be willing me to smile and still enjoy this.’
Britain have thus far had to contend with a number of near-misses on their hunt for a medal, with freestyle skier Kirsty Muir and freestyle snowboarder Mia Brookes both finishing their events on Monday in fourth place.
Team GB’s mixed doubles curling team of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat found themselves in similar circumstances on Tuesday as they lost their bronze-medal match to home favourites Italy.
After claiming bronze in the European Championships last year, Fear and Gibson represented a promising medal hope for Team GB
Fear was particularly hard on herself after making a mistake, saying that she felt ‘horrible’ for her mis-step
The pair began their journey in Milan performing their rhythm dance to a Spice Girls medley
Fear and Gibson have long been thought of as Britain’s best hope of a figure skating medal since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won bronze in Lillehammer in 1994 – 10 years after their gold in Sarejevo.
France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron claimed gold with a peerless 225.82 points, despite only dancing together as a couple since August last year.
Evan Bates and Madison Chock of the United States won silver, with Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier taking the bronze medal.
