Ana Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby are heading to Milano to represent Great Britain in both the team and the individual event.
After an emotional home Europeans, Luke told AnythingGOEs, “We’ve always had that lifelong dream of getting to the Olympics. That dream was tough at times, when we both were injured through our solo careers. I think when we did start to come together…that was the dream goal ,and that’s I guess why we made the sacrifices, relocated ourselves and started off our journey….We’ve come a long way in six years and I think, putting things in perspective, we’re just so proud of where we are, here today, and what we’ve got to look forward to.
Get to know more about Ana and Luke in our A to Z questionnaire!
Most Used App?
Ana: Instagram. No, sorry, can I change my answer? That is absolutely a lie. TikTok.
Luke: TikTok for you, Instagram for me. I’m getting into it, but yeah, I’m still quite a bit more old, when it comes to social media, but I’m trying my best.
Bedtime?
Luke: I’m a bit later, ten.
Ana: Half past nine.
Favorite Comfort Food?
Luke: Breaded chicken with rice and veggies is normally my go-to meal. So I guess, not really comfort meal but I have it most often.
Ana: I don’t have this often, but if a comfort food is just a snack you like…I do love Jaffa Cakes. I love them but you can’t have them too often.
Sarah: It’s one of your five-a-day, innit?
Ana: Exactly, orange.
A recurring Dream? Your last dream?
Ana: I actually had a dream last night, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen Molly [Lanaghan] an awful lot around recently, but last night, I dyed my hair bright pink and I was panicking because I was not sure how that happened, why it was bright pink all of a sudden…changed my hair colour for the Olympic Games, apparently!
Sarah: Do you think you would?
Ana: I don’t think I could pull it off like Molly does.
Luke: I can’t remember my most recent dream. Sometimes the nightmare that I have is like I missed a warm-up or something.
Ana: Please don’t do that.
What is an Embarrassing moment you can laugh about now?
Ana: I can laugh at it now, because it was two seasons ago, but absolutely toe-picking it, belly-flopping in the middle of the free program at Nationals, that was not funny but now I can look back and think those toe picks really got me. Got me good.
Luke: I don’t know
Ana: I’m thinking for you…you don’t really have any daft moments like me. He’s not a clumsy guy.
Luke: It’s not really anything but there’s a video [from] when we started, when we did a throw and she landed perfectly and you just see me sliding in the background.
Ana: On his belly.
Luke: Yeah, I toe-picked it after I threw it, so I guess something like that.
Fun Fact about yourself?
Ana: This is not a fun fact, but I don’t think people know, because I wear contact lenses, but see when I take my lenses out, I cannot see a single thing… Genuinely, right now, if I took them out, I would not even be able to see your faces at all.
Luke: There’s not really anything fun about me is there?
Ana: A joint fun fact is that his brother and my boyfriend play on our city’s two separate very big rivalry football teams.
Luke: Yeah, my brother plays for Dundee FC, and her boyfriend plays for Dundee United.
Favorite Genre of music?
Luke: I have so many. I listen to all genres of music.
Ana: One’s hip hop, like 90s hip hop is my favorite for sure.
Sarah: Have you been enjoying the rhythm dances then?
Ana: I have, I really have. I’m sitting in my seat dancing away. If anyone saw me, you didn’t. But just got the little shoulders going on every dance. This is the season I’d love to be an ice dancer for sure.
Luke: 70s and 80s, 90s for sure, that’s the genre I like.
Ana: You like your dance music.
Luke: Yeah, that’s true. Always dance playlists on at the rink, remixes, I like remixes.
Holiday memory?
Luke: Proposing on holiday in Spain. Also, last year in Italy. That’s two for you.
Ana: For me, I’d say just recently me and my boyfriend went to Dubai and we went to the safari… We got to go on the camels and also go in the desert, so that was loads of fun.
Biggest Inspiration?
Ana: This is the hardest question because if I could sit here and list 20 people I literally would.
Luke: I guess from a skating perspective, as a solo skater growing up, I’d say Javier Fernandez was always my favourite skater, but you know there’s so many, Yuzuru Hanyu as well. So I’d say they were a great inspiration, and I guess since switching to pairs, I would say Bruno and Aljona. Their free program from the 2018 Olympics is incredible.
Ana: I’d say also from a solo perspective, Carolina Kostner is like literally icon.
Sarah: Have you got to meet her?
Ana: Yes, fun fact I actually met her in 2014, and have a picture with her when I was just my young self and she was competing at Worlds that year. And now we see her quite a bit, and she’s so lovely, and so down to earth and the fact that we can actually just have like a conversation with her it’s like, mind-blowing to my 14-year-old self.
Luke: We were literally just saying this. She’s such a lovely person.
Ana: Such a composed woman, such an iconic skater, great ability in everything she did on the ice. She’s just all-around a great inspiration for all athletes, I think.
Jam session song?
Luke: I guess on the ice it’s dance music. Something upbeat to get us going in the morning.
Ana: When I’m getting my headphones on, I do like to put on little bit of Black Eyed Peas. I do love Black Eyed Peas, I just think that they’ve got a little bit of rhythm behind them.
Sarah, to Luke: Any specific artists for you?
Ana: He just remixes. He just has a remix on.
Luke: Normally, I switch around. Actuall,y recently, this is really random, you’re gonna find this funny, I’ve just been [listening to] The Greatest Showman. I watched it over Christmas. I absolutely love the movie.
Ana: Nice for you. I have yet to hear this in our warm-up area.
Luke: Probably not. I mean, I’ll probably keep that for personal stuff. There’s one song in particular, like just before you go out, it’s talking about, ‘ready for the greatest show’ so I guess that sort of gets me ready for it.
Ana: He’s listening to Greatest Show and I’ve got Black Eyed Peas. Difference in personalities right there.
Keepsake you’d never part with?
Ana: This ring. This ring has been on me for like 15 years. It was a gift from my dad to my mum…it feels like a connecting piece of jewellery that is both my mum and my dad together, and I will never ever take that off.
Luke: Well, I can’t follow that, can I? It’s a great story. I don’t wear anything that is a keepsake, but I guess you’re gonna find this funny as well. It’s not the same water bottle, but I’ve always had this similar type of water bottle since I was younger and it’s my mum that started me on these superstition things.
Ana: It’s literally the most bright yellow.
Luke: Bright blue and yellow water bottle that has been with me…I’ve got a whole stash. My fiance takes the mick out of me about it all the time and wants to chuck them all away but yeah, that water bottle.
Language you’d like to learn/speak?
Ana: Well, my dad’s side of the family are Ukrainian, but my dad was born and raised learning to speak in Russian. So because that is the native language for them, I would love to be able to speak that, to be able to communicate with my family on that side.
Luke: I’d like to be able to speak Spanish to go on holiday to Spain.
Ana: No, that’s so true.
Luke: I’d also like to be able to speak Italian, because I like going to Italy, and French because why not?
Ana: French because it’s so cool. It’s so aggressive but I love it.
Luke: But I’m so bad at languages, it’s never going to happen…I remember in school I was like, I’m never going to need French. And then, at 17, I moved to a country that just spoke French, so that’s quite a funny thing for you.
Movie-night favorite?
Ana: My and my boyfriend’s favorite binge watch is Anyone but You.
Luke: I don’t watch a lot…
Ana: He’s just on Instagram reels all day
Luke: I guess Wolf of Wall Street is an all-time favourite.
Do you have any Nick-names?
Ana: I suppose obviously my name is Anastasia, but Ana is the boring one – or Nastia, I don’t get that often though. I do like that, though. It is nice.
Luke: I guess the main one’s Diggers, after my surname Digby.
Ana: Or you just get called Digby. ‘Digby!’
Luke: Yeah, Digby or Diggers. I respond just as well to Luke, Digby, Diggers, so yeah, you all start calling me Diggers, I’ll still respond.
One Book, Movie, or Series you recommend?
Ana: Me and my boyfriend watch a lot of series, and you can binge-watch them very quickly because we get very into them. But your classics like Gossip Girl – I love Gossip Girl, very typical, and Vampire Diaries actually, I did love that, I used to be obsessed with that.
Luke: I like the sport series on Netflix, like Formula One, Drive to Survive.
Sarah: Since you mention F1, what’s your favourite driver or team?
Luke: I’ll go with McLaren as a team, because obviously they won recently, but I’d just like to see it competitive, really. I don’t like it when one team wins for five or six years in a row. And Lando Norris, if I’m going with McLaren.
What is your favorite Podcast?
Luke: It’s called Stick to Football from The Overlap. It’s just like a football talk show, really.
Ana: Well, there’s actually a figure skating one that I listen to, but not religiously, it’s got Adam Rippon.
Sarah: The Runthrough
Ana: I listen to that sometimes just for skating vibes, you know?
Luke: I like watching one called the High Performance Podcast. It’s sports, but also not even sports people, it’s just anyone who is, near enough, the best in their own thing, comes on and shares a story. So I actually find it really interesting and inspiring.
Ana: I just remembered, the name of the one I actually genuinely do love to listen to. I think it’s not this called anymore, but Newlyweds, you know, with British TV personalities, Sophie and Jamie. I love that podcast. [Note: It’s called NearlyParents now].
Quality you value in each other?
Ana: It’s organisation. I could do with that.
Luke: I guess her personality, she’s always quite cheery and quite happy even, at the early hours of the morning. That helps me, because I’m not a great morning person, so that does lift the vibes in the morning – but I’ve got better over the years.
Ana: He has gotten better. It used to be horrendous, like I knew just not even look in his direction.
Reason to Smile?
Luke: I mean, this is the best time of our lives. I mean, we’ve just finished our home Europeans,, and the countdown is on to Olympics. What is there not to smile about?
Ana: That is 100% a big one. I think also for me, my friends and family are all healthy right now and going into Olympic Games. That’s all I could wish for, for them to be able to be there to witness us do our thing out there.
Is there a Skating performance that you wish you could have seen live?
Luke: Bruno and Aljona.
Ana: I was going to see the same thing. Wait I have a different one. Tessa and Scott, Moulin Rouge. We’ll just go with the whole 2018.
Luke: Men and Women too, they were all pretty incredible.
Training Day Essentials?
Luke: Tissues
Ana: I steal off his.
Luke: Water, grip spray, gloves.
Ana: Gloves, and my lip balm, and hopefully water as well.
Luke: Sparkly water bottle.
Ana: Yeah, my sparkly water bottle.
Who or what do you think is Underrated?
Ana: This is hard, but actually, in our event, I genuinely just think they’re incredible: the Hungarians (Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko). I have a lot of respect for them and their consistency and the build that they’ve had over the last few seasons. Like as a competitor with them, I genuinely look up to that team because they just show so much consistency. It is actually mind-blowing and I respect it. I really respect it and I know they’ve obviously gained a medal here so it’s not that they’re underrated but I find like, they are really amazing.
Luke: I’d echo Ana. Their consistency, and their connection and fluency on the ice is incredible.
Dream Vacation destination?
Luke: I guess a bucket list would be New York near Christmas with it snowing on the outdoor rink, the one at Rockefeller Center, and then Central Park as well.
Ana: Actually, I don’t know, there’s so many places I’d love to go to. I’d love to go to LA. I just don’t think I would actually go there, because it’s quite far away.
Your Whereabouts on a day off?
Ana: I’m trying to think, what am I supposed to be doing. Usually I’m busy.
Luke: Honestly, it sounds so boring, but normally just catching up on jobs. Whether that’s admin jobs or skating or whatever, something needs sorting.
Ana: If I’m gonna pick a fun activity, I’d like to go out and have a coffee with my boyfriend, or go and have lunch but that is a very rare occasion because our schedules don’t ever line up.
Luke: I’d just try to chill and rest.
Ana: Have a lie-in. Yeah, that’s the answer.
An eXperience that changed you?
Ana: For me, it’s actually quite an obvious one…When I went to 2014 Worlds with my dad and his student. Prior to that, I had quit skating, so I was not interested. I didn’t want to do the sport. I didn’t enjoy it. And the entire environment of a Championship completely changed me and gave me a new perspective and a new, I suppose, fire inside. And it changed me for the better in that sense.
Sarah: Who was the student?
Ana: Brooklee Han.
Luke: Maybe a little bit more negative, but it’s normally the negative things, that at the time were awful but then it changes you. It probably would have been 2024 Worlds in Montreal for me personally. It changed me in terms of, I just never wanted to feel like that on the ice.
A Year that you would like to visit if you had a time machine?
Ana: So many…well, for one, I wish I was born in the 80s. I would love to have lived in that era but that’s not your question. What year? I really loved 2007. It was a time when I just started skating, I was literally just throwing myself around the ice, quite literally toe-picking it every day, not a care in the world, and just living my best life. I mean, I’m living my best life now, but I was living a great life with no worries in the world, just a seven-year-old child having loads of fun. I just reflected upon watching a lot of videos recently, and just remembering that childhood around that time was a really great time. So I’d love to go back then.
Luke: I’d probably say not a specific year, but yeah, when I was younger, probably eight, nine, ten, eleven, same sort of reasons. Now I obviously am loving it just as much, but yeah, when you’re kid, no worries.
What is your Zodiac sign (and your big 3), and do you believe in the zodiac?
Luke: I guess I’ll start, because I don’t have a clue about any of that, I don’t know what mine is.
Ana: I don’t know. See, I want to understand it, so if anybody can actually genuinely teach me what it’s about, I’m quite a believer in this type of stuff. But I’m Virgo…I was supposed to be a Leo, I was meant to be born on the 22nd of August, but I was born August 31st. I’ve not got a big three but if someone can teach me, then I’m all ears.
Read our previous A-Z interviews:
A to Z with Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
A to Z with Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier
A to Z with Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps
A to Z with Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez
A to Z with Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen
A to Z with Júlia Sylvía Gunnarsdottir and Manuel Piazza
A to Z with Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler
