British ice dance stars Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson saw their Olympic medal dreams shatter in an instant after a heartbreaking “nightmare on ice” during the 2026 Milano Cortina free dance. A costly stumble during their twizzle sequence sent the pair plummeting from fourth to a devastating seventh place, leaving Fear in tears as the reality of the mistake set in. This shock result ensures that Team GB’s 32-year wait for a figure skating medal continues, extending a painful drought that has haunted the nation since the era of Torvill and Dean.
Nightmare on ice for Fear and Gibson as Team GB’s Winter Olympic medal drought goes on
Great Britain’s 32-year wait for an Olympic figure skating medal goes on after ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson spectacularly crashed out of contention at Milan Cortina 2026.
Watched by the last British medallists, Dame Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, at the Assago Arena, Fear and Gibson delivered their worst free dance score of the season to plummet to a hugely disappointing seventh place.
Two early stumbles cost the tartan-clad duo any hope of edging higher than the fourth place they held after Monday’s rhythm dance, and their free dance score of 118.85 left them almost eight points adrift of their season’s best.
An emotional Fear said: “I can’t believe it’s happened. I am replaying it in my head and it’s just such a shame. I don’t really have the words yet. It will take me some time to process.
“I wanted to come out here and enjoy the Olympic experience and skate for me and skate for Lewis.”
Having started the night just 0.71 points off the podium, their cumulative total of 204.32 saw them slide down the rankings and ultimately finish more than 10 points adrift of Canadians Gilles Piper and Paul Poirier, who had started the evening in their sights but delivered when it mattered to take bronze with 217.74.
It proved a bitterly disappointing conclusion for the British pair, who have emerged in recent years as potential heirs to Torvill and Dean after a series of world and European medals, and had been strongly fancied to end that three-decade wait in Italy.
Fear and Gibson started the Games in style with a season’s best score for their rhythm dance in the team event, but left themselves with a mountain to climb after Fear’s fractional step-out from a twizzle saw them heavily marked down when they repeated the routine on Monday.
It meant they headed into their concluding free dance in fourth place, above Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, but behind the Canadians, and realistically requiring a big season’s best when it mattered most.
Instead, their performance to a medley of ‘The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond’ and The Proclaimers’ ‘500 Miles’ soon fell flat. The pain etched on the faces of the duo at the end of their routine said it all, with Team GB’s hopes of a first medal of the Games well and truly dashed.
If there was any solace to be gleaned, it was in the huge score of 131.56 score achieved by Piper and Poirer, who followed them onto the ice, which meant that even the performance of their careers by the British pair would not have been enough.
Ultimately Fear and Gibson’s performance cast doubts on their ability to be crowned as the rightful heirs to their illustrious compatriots, and bridge the glaring gap to the very top pairs in their discipline.
Above the Canadians, US husband and wife pair Evan Bates and Madison Chock took a total of 224.39 for silver, while French duo Guillaume Cizeron, the 2022 champion, and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold with 225.82 – more than 20 points clear of the ailing Britons.
Britain have thus far had to contend with a number of near-misses oin 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.
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.
