Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson won their first Skate Canada title on Sunday in Kelowna, British Columbia, bringing their Grand Prix medal tally to 10. France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud claimed silver, while USA’s Caroline Green and Michael Parsons took bronze.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson

Fear and Gibson won the rhythm dance with their fiery routine to “El Flamenco” and music by the Gipsy Kings. The 2025 World bronze medalists received level three and level four for their twizzles. Their Golden Waltz earned level two, with two of the four key points met. The team also earned level three for the circular steps and level four for both the choreographic element and lift, which received very high grades of execution (GOE). They scored 81.37 points in this segment.

Fear said the team had enjoyed six weeks of particularly strong training and was pleased to bring that consistency to competition.

“To be able to feel that on competitive ice is so fulfilling,” she said. “I think we missed competing, so I was really trying to embrace the nerves, the adrenaline, the anticipation, and just really love every second of it.”

Gibson welcomed the opportunity to assess the program under competitive conditions, noting that there were still details to refine. He also explained the inspiration behind their Gipsy Kings medley, which blends flamenco and other Latin styles with pop influences.

“I feel like there’s such a great parallel with us and the way that we’ve done that with our music choices over the years,” he said. “So it’s been really fun to delve into all the different dance styles and really try to appreciate as much as we can in the performance.”

The Golden Waltz was new to both skaters, and they relished the challenge of learning a compulsory dance. Fear said they wanted to bring a distinctive interpretation to the pattern, emphasizing speed, power, and attack.

The team also described a renewed sense of purpose heading into the season after reflecting on the previous year. Fear said they were focused on pushing beyond past expectations and exploring their potential.

“Just really abandoning any limiting beliefs, any old narratives, and just saying, ‘Who do we want to be? What are we capable of? And let’s do exactly that,’” she explained. “It’s been liberating and empowering and so much fun.”

The two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalists delivered an entertaining free dance to “Get the Party Started” and “The Sparkling Diamond,” earning 119.80 points to win the segment. Their routine, themed around “glitz and glamour,” featured level four twizzles, lifts, and dance spin. The one-foot steps received level two, while the diagonal steps earned level three. All elements received high GOEs, and the British duo secured the overall title with 201.17 points.

“It’s very special,” Gibson said of the gold medal. “It’s our second time medaling here in Kelowna, so that’s a little extra sweet in itself. And it’s a good start to our Grand Prix Series.”

Fear said the team had long wanted to perform a jazz program.

“We found the piece of music that complements that for us and also inspired the characters of a showgirl and an emcee,” she said. “I love that because I’m a big Taylor Swift fan, so I got to live my Taylor dream despite Lewis’s lack of enthusiasm for that. It’s just been really fun to explore that dance style and to infuse all of our elements with that glitzy, glamorous jazz style. Specifically, I love the slide, because minimal body parts are on the ice. It’s just my fingertips, which is great. It’s a reference to the past and some of the moves you used to see in skating.”

The team will compete next week at Cup of China, where they hope to build on their Skate Canada performance.

“I think we really want to ride the momentum of this competition, because it felt like a great continuation of our training and the consistency that we’ve built,” Fear said. “To test that under pressure here and to have the extra energy and joy of competing and performing for people, I think we just want to keep that energy alive and build even further.”

Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud

Skating to “Droit de Cité,” “A Motley Crew,” and “Can-Can,” Lopareva and Brissaud delivered a quirky, fun rhythm dance with good interpretation throughout. They earned level three and two on the circular steps, while their Golden Waltz received level three with three key points met. The twizzles were graded level four and three, and both the choreographic element and lift earned level four. The 2025 European silver medalists  scored 77.90 points to place second.

Lopareva said the team was eager to show the progress they had made since their last competition in Italy.

“We worked a lot during the summer and since our last competition which didn’t go as smoothly as we wanted,” she said. “So, we’ve been working hard, and we were very excited to show what worked,” she said. Brissaud added, “It’s maybe not our best, but we feel in the momentum. It’s where we want to go with this program. In each competition, feel more and more. So today is good. We take it.”

The clown concept was central to the program from the beginning. Lopareva said they worked with their coach, Marie-France Dubreuil, to select the music and then collaborated with David, a professional clown from Cirque du Soleil, to develop their performance. Their work began off the ice, using exercises to explore the character and find subtle details they could incorporate into the routine.

“From the beginning, even before we found the music, we told our coach, ‘We want to be clowns. In waltz, we want to be clowns,’” Lopareva explained.

Brissaud emphasized that clowning involves more than humor, with the program exploring different emotions while maintaining the technical demands of ice dance.

“Clown is not just smile and make jokes,” he pointed out. “Sometimes it’s a sad clown. For example, in the beginning, we play with that. I try to make her laugh.”

The pair also wanted to balance their theatrical concept with the traditional elegance of the waltz. Lopareva said they were careful not to let the clowning overwhelm the dance’s classical qualities, while Brissaud saw the program as an opportunity to demonstrate their versatility.

“We’re pretty famous for the exceptional style we have,” he said. “We can do a lot of different styles, but we still can do waltz and classic. So we just explore that this season with this program, and we love it.”

Lopareva and Brissaud showcased distinctive choreography and strong ice coverage in their contemporary free dance to “Berghain” by Rosalía. The three-time French national champions earned level four for their straight-line and stationary lifts, while the curve lift received level three. Their twizzles were graded level four and level three, while the diagonal step sequence received level three and level two. The French duo placed second in the free dance with 115.05 points and finished second overall with 192.95.

“We’re very happy,” said Lopareva. “There were little levels here and there that we missed, but the process is here. What we worked on is here. And now, like we said yesterday, we continue to progress each competition, and we’ll see.”

Brissaud explained that the free dance draws on the story of *Carmen*, reimagined as a modern relationship, allowing the team to explore their connection through the choreography.

“We wanted to do it personal,” he said. “We wanted to work on our relationship, be locked in from beginning till the end, because the story of the program is kind of a modern Carmen. So we want this attitude, but at the same time, we really want to show how strong we can be when we connect. And I think that’s where we really matched today.”

“They don’t fall in love,” added Lopareva. “It’s more about passion, how they start to be interested in each other. Then José wants more and more, and Carmen starts to feel like, ‘No, I need my freedom.’ That’s where the confrontation starts. And in the end, José kills Carmen. So that’s our story. I think it’s really been helping us in this music not to lose emotional focus, to not just skate beautifully, but also skate intentionally, emotionally.”

Caroline Green and Michael Parsons

Green and Parsons demonstrated strong interpretation in their energetic rhythm dance to selections from Hamilton. Their twizzles received level two and level three and showed good unison. The Golden Waltz earned level four, with all four key points met. Their stationary lift received level three, while the choreographic element earned level four. The 2022 Four Continents champions scored 74.24 points to place third going into the free dance.

Green praised choreographer Massimo Scali for his approach to the choreography.

“Everything he does is so tied to the rhythm and the feeling of the music, and that’s what drives the choreography, instead of layering that feeling onto just the technical foundation,” she said. “So to have someone who shares the same approach to music and dance and choreography that we have—all of the programs he does, I’m such a fan of—to be able to work with him was such a special experience. I think it was really aligned with what we wanted to do, trying new things and pushing ourselves to take a different approach this season.”

The rhythm dance draws on the opening of Hamilton, with Green and Parsons portraying the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Parsons portrays Hamilton, while Green portrays Burr. Green explained that their costumes reflect the original production, with Burr in red and Hamilton and much of the cast in white and cream, adapted for the demands of figure skating.

Green and Parsons delivered a captivating tango-inspired free dance, executing level four twizzles, lifts, and dance spin. Both the serpentine and one-foot step sequences received level two. The American duo placed third in the free dance with 111.78 points and finished third overall with 186.02.

Parsons said he was “proud” of their performance.

“I think I said proud after the rhythm dance too, but I’m also very proud after this skate,” he said. “This whole week, I think we showed the work that we’ve been doing at home with our whole team. It was a fight for the whole program, but we stayed together, and it felt like we attacked until the very last step, and that’s all I could ask for.”

“Especially from the second half onwards,” Green added. “I think that’s when we were able to really delve into the character of the piece. That was our goal coming off of our last two events: to be able to show the passion and the chemistry of this vehicle. I think we were able to make progress towards that today, so we’re just really excited.”

Teammates Oona Brown and Gage Brown finished fourth overall (183.72), followed by Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of Canada (179.80) and USA’s Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski (175.64).

Paula Slater

Paula is the founder of Golden Skate, which she launched in 1999. She has followed figure skating for more than four decades and has covered the Olympic Winter Games, ISU World Championships, and numerous other international competitions. A retired U.S. Army veteran with a bachelor's degree in psychology, Paula is dedicated to delivering accurate journalism, in-depth athlete interviews, and comprehensive resources that serve the global figure skating community.