Jayne Torvill: Scottish ice dancer on track to get first Winter Olympics medal in more than 30 years

Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear unveiled their Winter Olympics season free dance programme, which includes music from The Proclaimers, Loch Lomond and Auld Lang Syne, as they competed in the inaugural Bolero Cup at Sheffield Ice Arena.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Ms Torvill said she believed Mr Gibson and Ms Fear, who are ranked in the top few ice dancers in the world, were "in an excellent position" to win an Olympic medal for Team GB.

A win would be the first Olympic medal in figure skating for the UK since Ms Torvill and partner Christopher Dean won bronze in the ice dance competition in 1994.

Ms Torvill said: "We're very excited for their season. They're in an excellent position to hopefully get a medal for us at the Olympics."

She added that the free dance programme, which incorporates Highland dancing moves and includes tartan costumes, would be a hit in the coming season.

She said: "I'm sure it will go down really well, it's a great choice for them."

The Bolero Cup, launched this year to mark the careers of Ms Torvill and Mr Dean, saw Mr Gibson and Ms Fear take the gold medal with a total competition score of 199.81 points.

The pair, who train in Canada at the renowned Ice Academy of Montreal, said they had wanted to skate a Scottish themed programme for a number of years.

Mr Gibson said: "It was fun and it was nice to know that from the minute the music kicked in, people were into it."

He added: "We had thought about it [a Scottish programme] a few seasons ago and it just wouldn't come together. Then this year we just thought, 'It would work for the Olympics.'

"And so we attacked the music again and came up with the three songs that we chose and they really landed very quickly, which is very unusual for us, so we took that as a good sign, that it's so natural."

In addition to the Bolero Cup, Ice Sheffield is set to host the European Figure Skating Championships in January.

Ms Fear said: "I think because it's the Olympic season and there are so many opportunities in Great Britain and both of our programmes are patriotic on purpose, it makes it extra special. We are proud to get to debut them here."

She said the pair had worked with Highland dancing specialists in Montreal.

"We didnt want to go out there and be ignorant to the tradition," she said. "We wanted to pay homage to the roots of the dance style, then tackle translating that to the ice. It's harder than it looks."

Mr Gibson, who said he had learned ceilidh dancing at school in Prestwick, admitted he had never done Highland dancing before.

"When you see Highland dancers live, they are so strong and so steady and we needed to emulate that on the ice as well," he said.

The Scottish theme follows in the footsteps of Edinburgh siblings Sinead and John Kerr, who finished eighth at the World Figure Skating Championships in 2008 with a ceilidh-themed programme, dressed in tartan costumes.