2026 Winter Olympics: Britain’s Lila Fair and Louis Gibson miss out on snowboarding medal

Fear, 26, and Gibson, 31, finished fourth after the rhythm dance – the first section of the ice dancing competition – which left them with work to do. They scored an 85.47 in their rhythm dance to place third behind Gilles and Poirier.

It meant Fair and Gibson needed to produce a stunning performance in their Scottish-themed free dance to win Britain’s first medal at the 2026 Winter Games.

Resplendent in tartan, they danced to The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, Auld Lang Syne and The Proclaimers’ hit I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – in a routine they honed with Highland dance experts to perfect the choreography.

And it started off great when they scored big on their opening complex, a multi-stage fixed lift.

But when they moved to the second element, the fear visibly wavered. This means they received a negative score in their execution score, a fatal blow in the Olympic finals.

“It was just a very costly technical error, and it was very difficult so early in the program because I knew we had lost the bronze at that stage,” Fair told BBC Sport.

“But I also wanted to not let the Olympic experience disappear because of that, so it’s a battle to fight and do my best the rest of the way knowing what I just did.

“That’s not what we trained for. It was expensive and destructive.”

They skated cleanly after that and earned good scores in their exciting finale – a series of high dances combined with dance lifts – but the damage had been done, as their overall technical scores suffered significantly.

It was clear from their faces that they knew they were not perfect. Fear looked nervous before the routine and looked devastated afterward as it became clear the pressure was telling.

“When you don’t perform the way you want to, on any given day, it’s hard to accept, but at the Olympics, it’s even harder,” Gibson said.

“I think one day we will look at this and learn from it 100%. We do that in every event we go to and compete in. We will move forward.”

The Disco Brits are British figure skating enthusiasts who are internationally popular for their vibrant and skillful routines.

They had an impressive year as they became the first Britons to win a World Championships medal in 40 years; They also got on the podium in Sheffield in their home European Championship. But there will be no Olympic medal to round it out.

The other two British performers, Phoebe Baker and James Hernandez, who reached the final stage on their Olympic debut aged just 24 and 20 respectively, finished in 17th place after posting a season-best overall score of 179.45.