Bolero Cup 2025: A Fan Perspective

britishiceskating
7 hours ago
8 min read

By life-long figure skating fan Chris Cooper

The 2025-26 figure skating season is now underway, and it was fantastic to be in Sheffield the first weekend of September for the inaugural Bolero Cup, international ice dance competition.

For skating fans, of which I have been one for over 40 years, this is set to be a very exciting season, with the Winter Olympic Games taking place in Milan in February, preceded, of course, by a home European Champion

hips in Sheffield in January – less than four months away!

It is a great time to be a British skating fan, following a wonderful 2024-25, which culminated in Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson’s historic bronze medal at the World Championships in Boston in March, a first British world medal since 1984. Plus, two Olympic places being secured for Great Britain in ice dance, and one each in the pairs and women’s event. Following earlier achievements during the Grand Prix season and at Europeans Championships, it was the best season for British skating in more than a generation.

What better time then for the introduction by British Ice Skating of a brand new international ice dance event, named after the most iconic free dance of all time by Great Britain’s superhero skaters, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. They were in Sheffield to be part of this new event named in their honour, following their triumphant farewell tour, and they witnessed some fantastic skating across two days of competition.

Appropriately enough, the senior event was headlined by Lilah and Lewis in their first competition of the season and featuring the much-anticipated debut of the two programmes they will skate at all the major competitions ahead. They have begun this season as the number 1 ranked team in the ISU World Standings for ice dance, following an incredibly successful 2024-25. In addition to their world bronze medal, they also won their two Grand Prix events, two Challenger level events, a bronze medal at the Grand Prix Final and a third successive European medal, a bronze, in Tallinn. This well and truly makes them medal contenders for next year’s Olympics.

First up on Friday was the rhythm dance. This season’s theme is music and dance styles of the 1990s. Lilah and Lewis have chosen a Spice Girls medley, a programme which really showcases their personality as a team, full of energy and lots of fun, which has earned them a huge following of fans from around the world. Their rhythm dance music includes three Spice Girls number 1 hits: Wannabe, Viva Forever, and Spice Up Your Life. In their performance, they really inhabited the character of the music, and with their typical attention to detail emphasised so many nuances within the music throughout the choreography. This extended too to their costumes, with Lilah’s dress inspired by Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack Brit Awards dress, and her hair referencing Baby Spice. Meanwhile, Lewis’s outfit draws inspiration from both Scary and Sporty Spice. In case you’re wondering where Posh Spice is, Lilah told me that she is the Spice Girl she most identifies with. For Lewis? It’s Sporty Spice!

In Saturday’s free dance, we saw Lilah and Lewis’s free dance, which pays tribute to Lewis’s Scottish heritage, featuring traditional Scottish dancing and skated to a medley of (I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles, The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond, and Auld Lang Syne. With this being such an important season, having a really strong free dance is especially vital, and this one delivers in all areas. The choreography incorporates intricate movements of Scottish dancing throughout, highlighted especially in the step sequences and very unique choreographic twizzling movement. It is fun and uplifting, also with a great balance of light and shade in the programme composition. And after being rested as an element choice last season, it was also great to see Lilah and Lewis’s trademark choreographic slide back for this new free dance.

Our seven-time British Champions have created what is sure to become another fan favourite free dance, which will have audiences on their feet at the big competitions around the world as it builds to its rousing finale. Lilah and Lewis are able to a create a feeling of euphoric excitement through their performances that is totally unique to them. I’m excited to cheer them on to success from the stands this season at Europeans, Olympics and World Championships.

With these two performances, Lilah and Lewis won the inaugural Bolero Cup, much to the joy the of audience watching at iceSheffield, with a combined score of 199.81 points. They didn’t have it all their own way though, with some truly world high class opposition. The silver medal was won by Lithuania’s Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius, the 2024 European bronze medalists in Kaunas, behind Lilah and Lewis. They delivered two highly polished performances to show they are in great shape for the upcoming Olympic Qualifier event in Beijing later in the month, their last opportunity to secure a spot at the Olympics for their country, achieving a total of 197.50 points. Also with the same goal are Australia’s Holly Harris and Jason Chan, who won the bronze here for Australia with 181.68 points. The Bolero Cup provided an incredibly valuable preparation opportunity for both teams as they seek to earn their spots in Milan.

A total of seven nations sent teams to complete in the senior ice dance. Amongst them were three further home teams. The 2024 British Championship bronze medalists Sophie Bushell and Antonio Peña, in only their second season together, placed 7^th, achieving their best ever score for the rhythm dance. We also had two brand new British teams making their competition debut. Layla Karnes, who competed at Europeans in 2024, with her new partner Freddie Leggott, the two-time British silver medalist in men’s singles, making his debut in ice dance here. They are a very striking team on the ice and Freddie’s progress in ice dance is very impressive, just 10 months after his last senior men’s medal. Placing 9^th here, they have the potential to develop significantly across the course of the season. In 10^th place for Great Britain were another new team of Dana Sabatini-Speciale and Daniel Kaye.

It will be exciting to see all four senior British teams who competed here back in Sheffield in November for the 2025 British Championships. They will be joined by 2024 British silver medalists Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez, who sadly had to withdraw late from the Bolero Cup, but should be back competing again soon. Following a breakout 2024-25 season, they also have their eyes on the Olympics in Milan.

Speaking to Lilah and Lewis after the event, they were happy to have won and debuted their new programmes. Lots to be pleased with, and also areas to develop and improve as this very young season progresses. Their next event will the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, a Challenger level event that they have won for the past three seasons.

The junior ice dance event featured an intriguing battle between two incredibly talented British teams with huge potential. Ashlie Slatter and Louis Gregory won the rhythm dance section in what is just their second competition together. Ashlie is the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics bronze medalist with her previous partner, and she only teamed up with Louis this year. They look fantastic together on the ice, and it is mightily impressive is how quickly he has made the transition to ice dance from singles.

The title, however, went to the reigning British Junior Champions Mimi Marler-Davies and Joseph Black. They are a young team who have made remarkable progress, only two years since being crowned British Advanced Novice Champions. Mimi and Joseph have a very refined and elegant style on the ice, drawing on their performing arts background off the ice. Their mature and sophisticated free dance, skated to music from Porgy and Bess, saw them move ahead and win the gold medal, achieving a score of 82.01 points. This was over seven points higher than the new official ISU personal best they achieved the previous week at the Junior Grand Prix event in Ankara, for a total competition score of 130.54.

In a close competition, Ashlie and Louis won the silver medal with a total of 128.10 points. Their free dance, featuring music from Top Hat, is a very entertaining and showcases their speed and power over the ice. The final section of the programme reminded me of the closing section of Jayne and Chris’s 1994 Olympic free dance to Let’s Take the Music and Dance, which can only be a complimentary comparison! The bronze medal was won by Kristyna Stanclova and Karel Kostron of Czechia, with 118.42 points for their first international medal.

It will be fascinating to see how the season progresses for both Mimi and Joseph and Ashlie and Louis. Each team has a second Junior Grand Prix assignment prior to the British Championships, where the goal for each team will be to win and be selected for next year’s World Junior Championships in Tallinn. British skating fans are fortunate to have two such exciting young teams to cheer on, hopefully for many years to come.

The first gold medal of the competition was won in the Advanced Novice event, which featured two teams from the USA and was won in impressive fashion by Katherine Li and James Zhu, certainly a team to watch. It was great to see this competition overall supported so strongly by the United States, currently the world’s leading nation in ice dance.

The medals for all three categories were fittingly presented by Jayne and Chris, with the trophies awarded by Robin Cousins, President of British Ice Skating. For British fans it was great to see all three of our Olympic gold medal stars together and inspiring the current generation of skaters. For a nation with such a great historic pedigree in the sport, it looks like the future is in good hands.

The Bolero Cup was a really enjoyable event to attend and it is wonderful to have a brand new international ice dance competition in Great Britain, which is planned to be an annual event. This will make it the first annual international competition in ice dance since the prestigious event at Richmond, which ran from the late 1970s until 1990. I remember as a very young fan watching the last few editions of this competition, and I hope the Bolero Cup builds to become an important fixture each year in the international calendar. It is one of two new international events created by British Ice Skating, following the Robin Cousin Cup. This took place two weeks earlier at iceSheffield, and featuring singles and pairs competitions. Both offer great opportunities for fans to see the sport up close and personal and watch high quality skating by competitors from around the world.

Elite level skating will return to Sheffield soon with the 2025 British Championships from 25^th-30^th November, where selection for the Olympics and other international championships will be on the line, including the 2026 European Championships in Sheffield at the Utilita Arena from 13-18^th January. Tickets are selling fast for this final major championship for European skaters before the Olympics, and this is one not to be missed. Another important stop along the way for Britain’s singles and pairs skaters will be the Tayside Trophy international event in Dundee from 11^th-12^th October.