Olivia Smart was born on 1 April 1997 in Sheffield, England. She attended Sheffield High School for Girls.[1] Olivia's Trains - a model railway shop in the city - is named after her.[2] She became a Spanish citizen in July 2017.[3]
Skating career
Ice dance with Joseph Buckland (for Great Britain)
Smart teamed up with Joseph Buckland in 2010.[4] They made their JGP debut in autumn 2011, ranking thirteenth in Austria and twelfth in Estonia. They came in seventeenth at their first World Junior Championships, held in Minsk in March 2012. In the 2012–2013 season, the duo missed the JGP series and finished twenty-second at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Milan.
In 2013–2014, Smart/Buckland placed seventh at both of their JGP assignments, Poland and the Czech Republic, and finished tenth at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
On 13 December 2015, it was announced that Smart had teamed up with Spanish ice dancer Adrián Díaz and that they wished to represent Spain.[7] On 15 January 2016, Smart announced that the British skating association had released her and that she and Díaz would train in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, under Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, and Romain Haguenauer.[8]
Smart/Díaz took silver in February at the Bavarian Open. Later that month, Federación Española Deportes de Hielo (FEDH) selected them to compete at the 2017 World Championships, the main Olympic-qualifying competition.[9] The two placed sixteenth in the short dance, nineteenth in the free dance, and eighteenth overall at the event in Helsinki, Finland. Their result allowed Spain to send one ice dancing team to the Olympics.
After winning the silver medal at the Spanish Championships, finishing behind Hurtado/Khaliavin, they placed eighth at the 2019 European Championships.[citation needed]
While Smart/Díaz were listed on the preliminary entry list for the 2021 World Championships, the Spanish Ice Sports Federation announced on 2 March that the final determination as to which team would represent Spain would be made following a virtual skate-off between them and Hurtado/Khaliavin.[19] On 7 March, the Spanish federation announced that the berth had been awarded to Hurtado/Khaliavin.[20]
2021–2022 season: Beijing Olympics
Smart/Díaz began the Olympic season at the 2021 CS Autumn Classic International, where they won the silver medal, setting new personal best scores in the free dance and overall in the process.[21] They beat domestic rivals Hurtado/Khaliavin by 0.25 points in the first of three matchups to determine which team would be named to the Spanish Olympic team[22] at their second event, the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy.[23]
Competing on the Grand Prix at the 2021 Skate America, they placed fourth in the rhythm dance, 1.27 points behind Canadian training partners Fournier Beaudry/Sørensen. They came third in the free dance but remained fourth overall by 0.54 points.[24] Their Zorro free dance received a standing ovation from the audience, with Smart commenting that the "reaction of the crowd made it all worthwhile and so memorable."[25] The following week at their second Grand Prix, 2021 Skate Canada International, they were third in both segments of the competition, winning the bronze medal, their first Grand Prix medal.[26]
Smart/Díaz faced off against Hurtado/Khaliavin at the 2022 Spanish Championships and won both segments of the competition to take the gold medal with a score of 202.47, with a margin of 8.12 points over their silver medalist rivals, expanding their cumulative margin to 8.37 points.[27] Both teams then went to the 2022 European Championships, the third and final competition for the Spanish Olympic berth. Smart/Díaz were fifth in the rhythm dance and moved up to fourth overall with a fourth-place free dance, despite a technical fall on their ending pose. Smart remarked that this season was "the hardest we've ever worked for anything. It's not only been this competition; it has been the whole season that we gave everything we had." Hurtado/Khaliavin finished in sixth place, 4.96 points back.[28] With a cumulative margin of 13.33 points, Smart/Díaz were subsequently named to Spain's Olympic team.[29]
Competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in the dance event, Smart/Díaz placed ninth in the rhythm dance.[30] They skated a new personal best in the free dance, breaking 120 points in the segment for the first time with a score of 121.41. Due to errors by higher-ranked teams Fournier Beaudry/Sørensen, Gilles/Poirier and Stepanova/Bukin they were sixth in that segment and rose to eighth overall.[31]
Smart/Díaz finished their season at the 2022 World Championships, held in Montpellier. Russian dance teams were absent due to the International Skating Union banning all Russian athletes due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.[32] They finished seventh, the highest ever result for a Spanish team, and finally achieving the Spanish federation's long-desired goal of earning two berths for Spanish dance teams at the World Championships.[33]
On 23 May, the Spanish federation announced that Díaz was retiring from competition. They indicated that Smart would "follow a new sporting path" with the federation.[34]
At the same time, Smart began to develop a new competitive partnership with German ice dancer Tim Dieck. The two explored options to represent either Spain or Germany, but the Spanish federation offered superior financial support, and they ultimately requested that Dieck be released by the German Ice Skating Union.[37] In December 2022, it was announced that Dieck had been released by the German federation. The two planned to begin training in Montreal in April 2023 with an eye to competing in the 2023–24 season.[38]
Smart and Wilson were named the winners of Dancing on Ice.[36] She said afterward of her time on the show that "I've had a hard time and I've trained for the Olympics but this has been hard. We've loved it but it has been hard physically, mentally. I've learned a lot from doing this show and I'd love to take what I've learnt from this back to competing."[39]
Competing at their first Spanish Championships in December, Smart/Dieck won the gold medal over rivals Val/Kazimov.[43] Despite this, it was initially announced by the Spanish federation that Val/Kazimov would represent the country at the 2024 European and World Championships. Following controversy around the criteria used to arrive at this result, on December 27 the Spanish federation announced that Smart/Dieck would instead be given the country's lone World Championship berth.[44][45]
Smart/Dieck won the silver medal at the International Challenge Cup in February.[40] At the World Championships, held in Montreal, the home of the team's training base, Smart/Dieck were fifteenth in the rhythm dance and qualified to the free dance.[46] An error on their dance spin saw them finish twentieth among twenty teams in the free dance, dropping to nineteenth overall. Smart remarked that the mistake "fits within this season full of ups and downs, which we accept as a lesson we have to learn"[47]
