By Matteo Morelli
Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck completed their second season after joining forces as a new partnership representing Spain. Both of them are experienced ice dancers. Joining forces, they quickly went from a first season understanding how their partnership could work, to achieving important results in this second season just ended.
In Tallinn, Estonia, they competed at their first European Championships together, ending in fifth place and allowing Spain to have two teams at next year’s continental event. After their free skate, the two were as tired as incredibly satisfied of what they achieved, showing the good connection between them.
Tim Dieck (TD): We are really happy and really pleased with our performance. It was a little more nerve wracking than usual, but the crowd helped so much.
Olivia Smart (OS): It was a dream come true moment. It has been a while since we have competed at the Europeans, and to be amongst all the top teams as such a new team is like a blessing. We want to be up there where we want to fight for a podium.
Listening to them and seeing their enthusiasm, one almost forgets that their partnership is still quite new. The idea of becoming a team started to shape up around three years ago, but in a bit of an unusual way.
TD: It is a good story, actually. It started with a no from Olivia: when I heard that she stopped skating with Adrián (Díaz), I knew that I wanted to skate with her. I had a tryout planned in Montreal, and I knew that she was still there. Before that tryout, she was the first one I texted, but back then she was in a different mood, as if she stopped with her career. But then, when I went to Montreal, the coaches saw me skating and decided to move things forward.
OS: I was invited over for dinner at Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon’s house. After a couple of glasses of wine, they said I needed to have a tryout with Tim. A week prior, I just signed my Dancing on Ice contract, so I asked why they thought I needed to have a tryout with Tim, and they told me that he was in Montreal and looked very strong, and this could be my opportunity if I wanted to continue skating. I said I would do the tryout, but also mentioned I was going to do Dancing on Ice and leave for eight months, which meant no training. So, we had our tryout, and it was a no brainer for us both to continue, even if we both had to sacrifice the time of me being away doing Dancing on Ice, which gave us a later start into our first season together. It was a slow but steady start, and an uphill climb from there.
Considering how much they achieved already, it has indeed been quite a rapid climb!
TD: To say that we didn’t qualify last season for the Europeans, and now we are in the top five! It is great.
OS: We call it our “accelerated programme”. We are both very strong personalities and we are both Aries, so we bump heads sometimes, but we have the most amazing team that has taught me for years how to manage my emotions and energy. Now Tim is on board and he is learning himself: it is cool to watch somebody you are so close to going through the same learning process you did, and I have learned a lot watching him learn and grow as well. We are becoming a very good powerhouse together, using our weaknesses as strengths.
After the European Championships, they focussed on training to enter the World Championships in Boston in the best shape possible: their sixth-place finish there probably exceeded their expectations, but showed how their “accelerated programme” is already paying them back for all the hard work they are putting in. After their small bronze medal in the free, they couldn’t quite believe what they achieved.
OS: I am speechless. I have never had a smile on my face like that! The feeling of it, the connection we had together: I was so emotional all day. If you would have asked me two years ago when we first held each other’s hands that we would be here today, I would have laughed in everyone’s face. But we made it!
TD: Every moment, I really felt the connection with Olivia on the ice.
OS: We have built so many fans and relationships through this (free) programme.
From their storytelling to their characters impersonation, their free dance on music from the movie Dune was indeed one of the most popular of the season.
TD: It was actually Olivia’s idea. She came into the ring one day and suggested Dune. Then we both went to watch the movie again with our dance coach (Sam Chouinard).
OS: I was looking for a piece of music with strong female vocals. I love listening to strong, airy female vocals, something very whimsical that gives you chills. And then I watched the movie and thought it was exactly it. I thought that maybe it is too cliché to do Dune, because it had just come out and maybe a lot of people were going to do it. No one did it in ice dance, and a few other people did it in the other disciplines, but it became the movie of the year for people to use. I am very proud that we could be the ice dance team to put it forward.
Their costumes, designed by Madison Chock and Mathieu Caron, stand out throughout the entire programme, and earned them the 2025 ISU Skating Award for Best Costume.
TD: Mine was by Mathieu, I stuck with the first version of it.
OS: We had two versions of mine. A good programme needs a whole vibe and energy, including the costumes and the look. That is what ice dance is, the look is a big part of it. After Nebelhorn Trophy, I realized that I wasn’t 100% sure of what my costume was and I was going to change it anyway. I had these ideas on paper and pictures, but I couldn’t put them all together and make up a design, so I went to Madison for help. She already helped me with my Olympic season costume, and she nailed it with this one.
The ice dance field they left in their previous partnership is not exactly the one they found after teaming up: from presentations to costumes and music styles, the discipline is evolving in many different ways, with new directions of travel being explored.
OS: I would definitely say that the creative people are pushing the boundaries. Every year, people have to think outside the box and the creativity is shifted, not just from the younger teams but also from the top ones: you have Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri doing a very modern, robotic programme, Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud doing a techno one like what we hear when we go out at clubs, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson skating to Beyoncé. Things are so different to what we were used to, but people pushing the boundaries also means that everyone pushes each other because of that. It is interesting because, for example, how do you judge a Beyoncé programme against a robot programme? It is really difficult, but I guess that is what makes our sport interesting to watch as well. It is not just tango after tango after tango, and I know there are a lot of people that are missing that basic dance concept of waltzes, tangos, and foxtrots. I am not going to lie, I have never done a golden waltz or anything like that and I would love to at some point. It would be cool for the rhythm dance to see that come back a little bit and then have full creative space for the free dance, but I know they are trying different things every year with the rhythm dance, and it is good. We will see how it evolves, with the theme changing every year it really keeps us on our toes. But with the free dance, I think people are just going to keep pushing boundaries of what they can do to not just entertain the crowds but also to get the judges attention, because if the judges don’t like your programme, you are not going to be getting the scores you want. You have to please everyone, not just yourself.
The way the rhythm dance is evolving is particularly interesting, but sounds like it is posing some challenges at the same time.
TD: Especially when it comes to the Olympic season, where most of the time the ISU is trying to understand what crowds would like. It is very difficult, but I agree with Olivia that it would be nice to take a step back again, back to the “classical” part where you can really compare each other’s skating skills, and then you can have complete freedom for the free dance.
Another change we are witnessing in the field is the longevity of some teams out there. With Olivia and Tim in their late twenties, could we expect to see them for some years to come?
OS: Our main goals as the team is, of course, to compete at the Olympic Games together, so that is our next long-term goal for 2026, the Olympics. We did say we would really re-evaluate year by year how we are doing and how we would want to prepare for the next season. We love what we do, and with the uphill climb we are having right now, it will be hard to step away from it after the Games. Both of us also know that there is life beyond skating, but we both have a very good balance at the moment and we are just going to keep each other in line and in check with how we feel and where we are at, taking it season by season. If we see there is an opening there for us, I don’t think we will miss that chance.
This is very true for both of them, but particularly for Olivia, when thinking about her decision to accept the opportunity to enter the Dancing on Ice experience in the UK (and win it!).
OS: I learned a lot doing that show. One of the biggest reasons why I did it was because Marie-France told me that I would learn so much from it, from partnering skills to patience and energy management. I would say the biggest learning I had was patience: it took time, work and patience to go into a brand-new partnership where both of us have very different skating skills and mindsets and trying to get those aligned. I used my skills from competing in a team sport with my celebrity partner Nile (Wilson), because he was used to compete alone (he is a former artistic gymnast for Great Britain, winner of an Olympic bronze medal at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro). I have also learned a lot in terms of performance skills on the ice, that no matter how you feel, how nervous you are, you just do your job. I had a lot of those moments on Dancing On Ice: for example, when I lifted Nile, I was the most nervous I have ever been, and I was on live television but I had to do it, and I just did! When I go into competition now, even if I have all these thoughts or I am nervous, I think that I have to do it. And if I don’t do it, I don’t do it, but I know I can and I have to do it.
It is clear that Olivia and Tim have found their balance and are really enjoying their partnership, on and off the ice. I wanted to conclude our chat by asking a key question: Olivia is well known to love dogs, including her own Linda in Montreal and the many dogs in her family. Is Tim also a big fan of dogs?
TD: Of course! I have a dog at home in Germany, and whenever Olivia is busy in Montreal, I take care of Linda. I absolutely love dogs!
Thank you so much to both for the time spent talking with us, and best of luck with the next season.
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