How Sheffield's Luke Digby went from Tesco Express to competing in FSU World Grand Prix

For the 21-year-old is back in his home city of Sheffield for the MK John Wilson-sponsored World Figure Skating Grand Prix at iceSheffield.

It is the biggest winter sports event to be held in Yorkshire for many a year and that a crowd of close to 1,000 people per day gets the chance to see a homegrown talent competing with the best skaters on the planet just adds to the uniqueness of the moment.

“Since the announcement 11 weeks ago that it was coming here it’s been a very reminiscent time for me,” says Digby as he looks out over the blue seats and the shimmering ice he is set to perform on.

“I’ve been thinking back 10, 12 years to my 10-year-old self skating on the same ice that later this week will have a full crowd and is the stage for our first senior grand prix.

“It’s all a little surreal, but very exciting. I’m proud. I’ve got all the emotions.”

The memories that have come flooding back range from how it all started for him: “my two older sisters were inspired by Dancing on Ice. They wanted to come and try skating and at the time I didn’t have much choice.”

To the sacrifices his parents made to help get him across Sheffield from his home in Fulwood to training in Attercliffe.

“I remember mum driving through the traffic after a morning skating session to get me back to school, eating my breakfast in the car during rush hour. I always look back fondly on it.”

Despite the Steel City boasting two superb ice rinks with the Arena just across the road from iceSheffield, Digby elected to move north to continue his journey.

He had been an accomplished singles skater, competing at the European Youth Olympic Festival and a junior world championships, before successive cartilage injuries left him questioning whether he could reach the top on his own.

Then in 2019 the opportunity arose to join forces with Anastasia Vaipan-Law in the pairs, and he jumped at it, moving to Dundee to train alongside her. “We get on very well on and off the ice and the key is we want to do well for the partnership," says Digby. “We push each other all the time.”

Like their peers, Digby and Vaipan-Law have to fit their training around part-time jobs. They both coach skating and twice a week the young Yorkshireman heads off to his shift at the petrol station.

"It’s in a decent area,” he laughs.

It has all contributed, though, to this moment in the spotlight, the chance to thank his family for their help in getting him here, to entertain a Yorkshire crowd many of whom will be new to the sport, and to compete with the very best pairs skaters in the world.

“I didn’t think when I moved up to Dundee we’d be at this level so quickly, but the progress we madehas allowed us to get to such major competitions so early in the partnership," says Digby, who along with his partner contests the short program on Friday evening and the free program on Saturday night.

“We’re still relatively new, it’s only our second season together. Compared to the other partnerships we’ve got a lot to learn and a lot to gain from an event like this ”

In all there are seven British skaters in action across the three days of competition. “It’s a great privilege for us as athletes from Great Britain to be at home and have that experience of a home crowd,” says Digby.