Figure skating: The World Cup medal was decided in an extraordinary way – British stars furious with the judges

The fate of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson stirred emotions. Picture: MARTIN DIVISEK, EPA

Prague

French Olympic champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron are now also ice dance world champions.

The French couple was clearly in the lead already after the rhythm dance and crowned their first season together with their record score of 230.81.

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron’s winning margin of 19.29 points is the largest in World Cup history.

Experienced in Canada Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier collected 211.52 points and won their third consecutive World Cup silver. The US players who appeared in the first World Cup Emile Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik again they finished third.

Finland Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis withdrew from the free dance due to back pain in Versluis. They were in a whopping 11th place after Friday’s rhythm dance.

Ice dancing the twists and turns of the medal battle did not end with the wonderful free dance of Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron.

British star couple Lilah Fear–Lewis Gibson fell from third place to fourth place in the rhythm dance in an exceptionally harsh way.

Fear and Gibson’s scores were reviewed for a very long time until the judges gave the pair a very rare two point deduction for the illegal element. Former top judge and commentator for Yle Mika Saarelainen understood the situation quickly but mentioned that he had never seen anything like it.

The sold-out arena in Prague booed audibly after seeing the British couple’s score and the points deduction. Finally, Fear and Gibson were 0.22 points away from third place and the WC bronze.

The couple did not appear in front of the written media at all, but went around being interviewed by TV companies.

“Right now it feels terrible and unfair. We put a lot of work into this program in the last few weeks,” Gibson told Yle in the interview.

Official no reason was given for the reduction. Saarelainen immediately suspected that the reason was apparently directly in the hand lifting, which is prohibited in ice dancing.

Fear and Gibson went to talk to the technical jury after the race.

“This is sad. We went through this with the judges quickly, but we didn’t get any answers. We hope for the sake of the sport as a whole that this doesn’t stop there. We worked hard. We hope the judges’ scores are in line with the athletes’ performances,” Fear said.

“We wouldn’t trade today’s performance for anything. The crowd’s reaction and the feeling of success was exactly what we wanted,” he stated.

The British Figure Skating Association asked for the situation to be re-examined to get clarity on the situation. The rarity of the case is illustrated by the fact that the representative of the British union did not even know the course of the process.

At the press conference, however, the top three were still unchanged, and no new information was received about the situation before the arena closed for the night.

The British Figure Skating Association released a statement on the incident, questioning the deduction made to Gibson and Fear’s points.

“In our opinion, the reduction was made incorrectly, and it does not accurately reflect the performance seen on the ice,” the association wrote.

It also wrote that it does not believe that the reduction was made fairly and transparently. The union said it would take the matter to the International Skating Union.

Prahan The ice dance competition at the World Championships turned out to be sad for Finns when, in addition to the fate of Turkkila and Versluis Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen were eliminated from the free dance due to a wobble.

However, a small boost was received at a late press conference, when Canada’s silver pair told which of the programs of the competition season they thought was the most entertaining.

“Paul and I really enjoyed the Moulin Rouge free dance of the Finnish couple Yuka and Juho. They really bring something special to ice dancing,” said Piper Gilles.

Orihara and Pirinen’s flying and entertaining free dance gathered popularity throughout the season. One of the show’s tricks even came up become a viral hit.

“I would like to say many other names, but if you have to choose one couple, there is something special about the two of them.”

Correction 29/3/2026 at 10:11: Fear and Gibson ended up being 0.22 points away from third place and the World Championship bronze. In the story, it was originally said that they were two points away from the World Cup silver, which in reality was 2.54 points away.