Luke Digby and Anastasia Vaipan-Law achieved Britain’s best result at a European Championships for 35 years when they finished fifth last year
Olympic pairs skaters Luke Digby and Anastasia Vaipan-Law are cashing in their superpower ahead of a debut Olympics at Milano Cortina 2026. The pair have been competing together since 2020 and have since stormed into the British figure skating history books.
Sheffield’s Digby, 24, and Blackpool’s Vaipan-Law, 26, achieved Britain’s best result at a European Championships for 35 years when they finished fifth last year and qualified Team GB for pairs skating at Milano Cortina 2026 after a 12th place finish at the 2025 World Championships. A case of ying and yang, or hot versus cold, the two exude sibling energy off the ice, with the bubbly Vaipan-Law usually fulfilling little sister duties despite being the elder of the two.
Those are the stable foundations of an almost telepathic partnership and friendship that they hope will help them thrive in Italy, with aims to stamp their names into history once more.
“When it actually comes to the competition and it comes to that moment when we are starting a routine, we don’t necessarily say much to each other,” said Digby. “I think we know where we are and what needs to be done. We do have that telepathic thought process where we can look at each other, and know what the other one is thinking. When the moment comes, we will be ready.”
Vaipan-Law added: “We do seem to have that, which I feel is our superpower. We both know exactly what we’re thinking and what the plan is which is very helpful.”
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Their journey is one of linear timelines, with both starting out in promising solo careers before knee injuries saw them forced to change their course and find each other.
Digby said: “Everything was going very well in my solo career, I had just become junior British champion for the second time and then a few days later, trying new elements, that’s when I had my first knee injury.. It took me off the ice for about six months and then the same injury reoccurred, and the second time round was really tough and it took me a lot longer to come around.
“I struggled with that. I’ve always been very realistic as well as being optimistic and I knew with what I had to do in my solo career I probably wouldn’t get to the level I wanted to go to. That was when I started looking at options.”
Vaipan-Law was in a similar boat but is grateful when reflecting on how her journey panned out.
“It was like everything just kind of fell into place at the right time,” she said. “I had my knee injury, had surgery, and it felt like the time was right to move into pairs. It was inevitable.”
Less than one month before they competed at their maiden Olympic Games, Digby and Vaipan-Law got the chance to strut their stuff on home ice at the 2026 European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield, finishing seventh. The Championships returned to the Steel City powered by funding from the National Lottery, part of UK Sport’s Performance event programme.
The pair finished seventh but are confident they will be at their best for the Olympics. Now based in Dundee, the two skaters came together courtesy of their head coach Simon Briggs. Digby was unable to fully skate in the early days of the partnership as he was still recovering from his second knee injury, but there was an immediate spark that began their journey to five consecutive national titles and a place at the biggest skating stage of all.
Digby said: “It was very different. You spend so many years skating by yourself and all of a sudden you’ve got to learn to skate with someone else. It’s almost completely new.”
Vaipan-Law added: “We did the most basic, forward skating. Like I’m not talking about crossovers or anything.
“He came all the way up to Scotland, did this really easy try out and we were like, ‘yeah, this is good.’ It was weird, we didn’t do an awful lot but we both knew that we had the same mindset, the same motivation and ability. There was no doubt in my mind that this would work.”
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