2026 Winter Olympics: Fear and Gibson produce season best but Team GB struggle in team event
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson posted a season-best score in their first performance at Milan-Cortina 2026 but Team GB struggled overall in the team event.
A total of 10 teams – including Great Britain for the first time since 2014 – compete for points across the four disciplines: men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance. The best skater in each discipline gets 10 points, the second best gets nine and so on.
Qualification consists of a short program and rhythm dance, with the top five teams progressing to the finals to skate for a medal.
Britain are currently in eighth place with 11 points and need a score of nine or more from men’s skater Edward Appleby on Saturday afternoon to stand any chance of staying in the medal race.
Ice dancers Fear and Gibson performed a stunning rhythm dance routine on Friday morning to their trademark Spice Girls mix.
Fear – who will carry the British flag at the opening ceremony on Friday night – wore it here as a sparkly Ginger Spice inspired dress, as she and Gibson landed their planned elements with gusto.
They recorded a score of 86.85 points, their best of the 2025-26 season to put Team GB third after the opening ice dance section.
However, Britain’s hopes of fighting for a medal took a blow during the pairs.
Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby, who have finished in the top 10 at the European Championships during the past two competitions, started strongly on their Olympic debut.
But Vaipan-Law fell during the throw triple salchow, resulting in no points for that element and an overall one-point deduction.
And in the women’s singles Kristen Spours missed her double axel, resulting in it being marked as an invalid element.
British champion Spours, 25, was a doubt for the Games after having disc herniation surgery last June and then taking an indefinite break to prioritise her physical and mental health.
The battle for team event gold in Milan is expected to be between United States and Japan, and they are the top two after day one – the former leading the latter by two points.
