Winter Olympics 2022 - 'Proud' Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson qualify for the next round of Beijing Ice Dance
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Published 12/02/2022 at 15:56 GMT
British pair Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson finished in 10th place in the rhythm dance section, with the French partnership of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron leading the way with a new world record. Fear and Gibson were 14 points behind the leaders but will return to the ice with confidence, hoping the magic of Disney can take them up the leaderboard in the free dance.
Watch Chen's spellbinding world record figure skating routine at Beijing 2022
In an explosion of rock anthems, British pair Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson put on an entertaining performance to kick off their ice dance campaign in Beijing and safely qualify for the next round.
Twenty of the 23 partnerships who skated in the rhythm dance section made it into the free dance stage, with just Germany, Japan and Lithuania missing out.
Fear and Gibson’s routine was full of energy and set to a medley of anthems from Kiss including "I Was Made for Lovin’ You" and "Rock and Roll All Nite".
Speaking to Eurosport after they had taken to the ice, Gibson explained why they chose to go for 70s rock songs.
“Nostalgia and the want to entertain. That’s what we love to do. It’s really special when we can feel that the audience is getting behind us and getting into the programme so we really had that in mind when we were choosing the music,” he said.
The pair could be forgiven for feeling slightly disappointed with their score of 76.45, which was 14 points behind the leaders Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who broke their own world record in rhythm dance.
However, Fear is more interested in the bigger picture, saying “the fact we skated a performance we were so proud of on Olympic ice, that’s all we wanted.”
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The pair finished seventh at the World Championships last year, so will have arrived in Beijing hoping to be in with a chance of challenging for a podium place, but Gibson knows everything will need to go their way in order for that to happen.
“Our season was very full of ups and downs. Whether that was results or placements, whatever it was, sometimes we were on the podium but we weren’t happy with the skate and vice versa. We had to learn to do it for us and the feeling we want to have and I think we achieved that today”, he said.
Next up is the free skate, where Gibson and Fear will be inspired by Disney, with their routine set to Circle of Life and They Live In You from The Lion King.
Gibson knows a huge challenge awaits them but cannot wait to return to the ice, saying, “that’s the programme we’ve struggled more with this season, just changing music and different aspects of the programme, but we’re absolutely ready.”
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Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+.
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