by Matteo Morelli | Photos by Matteo Morelli (off ice) & Yoriko Suzuki (on ice)

Great Britain welcomed back the European Championships to Sheffield, where the event was last hosted in 2012. A packed arena cheered on all the 28 teams competing, showing love and support to everyone, with extra-special love for the local teams. The ice dance event proved to be highly entertaining and also quite eventful, making for a gripping competition that kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won their first gold as a new team. They were followed by Italy’s Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri in second place, and home darlings Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson in bronze medal position. At the medal ceremony, all three teams were congratulated by British ice dance legend Sir Christopher Dean, who presented each medallist with flowers.

Event Recap

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron claimed their first European gold together with a total of 222.43 points, the highest score so far this season.

Neither skater is new to the European Championships. Cizeron won several medals in his previous partnership (his last Europeans appearance was in 2020), and Fournier Beaudry previously competed at the event representing Denmark until 2018.

“I had the chance to experience both Europeans and Four Continents, and I have to say that I missed a lot Europeans because it was a really good practice for Worlds”, Fournier Beaudry shared. “We couldn’t wait to come here for our first Europeans together”.

Their rhythm dance already put them in the lead with 86.93 points, despite an exclamation mark for their choreographic rhythm sequence. They shared that since the Grand Prix Final they had worked on both programmes to improve them.

“We have made several changes to our short program, and we wanted to show them for the first time in front of an audience”, Fournier Beaudry said.

“We had a few ideas of what we wanted to tweak after the final, so that was our plan all along”, Cizeron added. “Even though we didn’t have so much time, I think it was really worth it, and it showed”.

Their free dance earned 135.50, a new personal best for them and the highest score of the season. The programme continues to grow in intensity and depth.

“I saw Stéphane (Lambiel) skating to it and it brought me to tears and I was like, ‘I have to skate to this one day’, then the opportunity came around and together with Laurence we found a way to make it a competitive program”, Cizeron shared. “When I introduced the music, I was really hoping that she would love it as much as I did, and she did instantly”.

With the Winter Olympic Games approaching quickly, this gold medal represents a key step toward their podium ambitions.

“We came here seeing this competition as a rehearsal for the Olympic Games”, Fournier Beaudry admitted. “It was a long week of training, a very good week across all our sessions, and we put down two strong competition programs. That gives us a bit of hope and motivation for what is ahead”.

“We are really pleased with all of those changes that we made. I think for us it was kind of just a stepping stone towards the Olympics”, Cizeron said.

Charlène Guinard and Marco Fabbri continue their remarkable consistency at the European Championships. After three consecutive European titles, they earned a silver medal, an important result following a shaky start of their season on the Grand Prix circuit.

“This silver medal for us really feels like gold”, Guignard said. “This really felt impossible to achieve, we are very happy”.

“The beginning of the season was not great for us, we were quite disappointed by the scores we got”, Fabbri admitted. “We planned to start the season a little later, so we knew that we were not in perfect shape at the beginning of the season, but still, getting certain scores hurt a little bit. We felt like we cannot skate anymore, we cannot do the things we used to till last season anymore, so getting back from that beginning of the season and going home now with these performances is something we are really proud of”.

They were third after the rhythm dance, with 84.48 points. Ahead of the free, Fabbri had an issue with his right boot when the warm-up started, resolved only towards the end of the session to allow them to warm up for just less than a minute.

“I don’t know what happened exactly but, after a few pushes on the ice, I felt that something was weird and then I looked at my boot and a hook was not there anymore” Fabbri explained. (During the press conference, Guignard showed the hook that fell off) “I tried to make a hole because even if it came out completely, there was still a part of leather so I could not make the lace pass through the boot, and in the end I could fix it”.

“At the end, we are tired but we are very proud of what we did, and I am so proud of Marco because when I saw his face during the warm-up, I said ‘Oh my gosh, I know what happened’”, Guignard added. “I was terrified, but he did very well, I am so proud of him”.

Their free, skated with a new costume for Guignard, earned 125.86 points, bringing their total score to 210.34.

Notably, Guignard and Fabbri made their European Championships debut in Sheffield in 2012, the first of what is now a record fourteen appearances.

“It has been special because you have the possibility to watch back to your path, to your evolution”, Fabbri shared. “Sometimes in life, you close your circle, and this was like that moment”.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson had a lot of excitement heading into this event on home ice. The reception exceeded all expectations: loud support, thunderous cheers, flags waving everywhere, big clapping of hands throughout both performances.

“It doesn’t come around a lot in a skater’s career to have a home European Championship, so we just embraced it all and we are so proud of the way that we skated”, Gibson shared. “The crowd were just absolutely incredible, the noise was like nothing I have ever experienced before and something that I will definitely remember for a very long time”.

Their rhythm dance earned them 85.47 points and a second place. A costly mistake in the twizzles during the free dance dropped them one position, but they still finished with bronze, scoring 124.04 in the free and 209.51 overall.

“This was not what we planned, so of course we are really frustrated about that”, Fear admitted. “But I am extremely proud of how fast we came back, we didn’t want to not enjoy the rest of it, so we really made sure to flip that switch and take in the amazing opportunity of skating with the whole crowd”.

“A skill that we have to train mentally is being able to refocus and be present because otherwise, the mistake can follow you for the whole program and detract from the rest of it”, she added. “I was really proud we recovered quickly and got straight back into the next element because those are points right there. We also let in the joy and the fun, we did not want to miss the experience of having this home crowd just because we made a mistake, and I am really proud that we did that”.

Interestingly, Fear was a flower girl at the 2012 European Championships. When Guignard told her she had competed there before, Fear initially thought she was referring to the ISU Grand Prix in Sheffield four years ago but was shocked to realise she was talking about the 2012 Europeans! Seeing Fear’s journey from flower girl to European medallist is a powerful reminder to never give up on your dreams.

Last year silver medallists Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud finished in fourth place with a total score of 204.72 points. Their free dance, set to music by Björk, showcases their incredibly creative side. Their skate was briefly interrupted just a few seconds into it when the judges spotted Fabbri’s boot hook on the ice, which had to be removed for the skaters’ safety.

With Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier finishing ninth, France continues to show a strong ice dance field, with all three teams in the top ten.

Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius were fourth after the rhythm dance, but a mistake on the one foot turn sequence had them receiving the seventh free dance score of the day and an overall fifth place finish with 200.29 points. This season has been a successful one for them, winning the Skate to Milano event to secure their place at the Winter Olympic Games and qualifying for their first Grand Prix Final.

Georgia’s Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin finished in sixth place with 199.31 points. Their rhythm dance was affected by the wrong music being played twice, delaying the start of their programme. Despite this, they completed their programmes and also had a nice cake and candles moment for Davis in the mixed zone, to celebrate her birthday.

Spain’s Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck were tenth after the rhythm dance, a result they were not happy with, but their Dune part two programme was the fifth free dance of the day, allowing them to finish in seventh place overall with 196.44 points. Smart, originally from Sheffield, especially enjoyed skating in front of family and friends, and students from the school she went to when she younger.

Finland’s Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis delivered a strong return to competition after being forced to miss the start of the season because of an injury to Versluis. Returning to training only three months ago, their season began at Nationals and culminated in this eighth-place finish at Europeans with 193.83 points. Interesting fact: Turkkila, like Guignard and Fabbri, also completed at the 2012 Europeans in Sheffield, however back then she was still a single skater.

The other Finnish team of Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen had a mistake in their rhythm dance but managed to recover in the free to finish twelfth overall.

Czech Republic’s Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler finished tenth with 189.47 points. They admitted they were really pleased with their results, particularly after nationals where they earned silver behind Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek, who withdrew from this event due to illness (another two teams withdrew for similar reasons: Germany’s Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan, and Georgia’s Maria Kazakova and Vladislav Kasinskij, in what would have been their European Championships debut).

Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez received a huge reception from their home crowd and were incredibly happy with what they experienced. They finished eleventh overall, continuing to show improvement and climb the rankings. They will be heading to their first Winter Olympic Games; this season, they have been working with their coaches, Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes (both of whom will be with them in Milano), to reinforce the mindset needed to achieve their Olympic dream. They shared that it was only after the official Team GB announcement that they realised their Olympic dream was coming true.

Some of the other teams competing at the event are also preparing for the Winter Olympic Games, including Milla Ruud Reitan and Nikolaj Majorov, with Reitan recently obtaining Swedish citizenship to allow both to compete in Milano, and Sofia Val and Asaf Kazimov, who earlier in the season won bronze at the Skate to Milano event to grab a second Olympic spot for Spain.