Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck bring football to Olympic ice - and get surprise invite from Barcelona F.C.

There are many perks to being an international figure skater: winning medals, travelling around the world, and receiving gifts from adoring fans, to name a few.

But Spanish ice dancers Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck found another, rather unexpected one: football tickets to one of the most tantalising clashes of the year, Barcelona F.C. versus Real Madrid. And not only are Smart and Dieck going to El Clásico at Camp Nou on Sunday (10 May), but they will be sitting in the presidential box with the best view of the 62,652-capacity stadium.

If the match between Olympic figure skaters and football’s elite does not seem the most natural one, then you probably haven't seen Smart and Dieck’s dribbling skills – on ice.

The two-time Olympians put those skills to good use in their exhibition program during the 2025-26 season. Skating to a crowd-rousing potpourri of Euro hits and dressed in full Spanish kit, Smart and Dieck played a mini football match at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 with skates on their feet instead of cleats.

“It was [Olivia’s] idea, bringing soccer to the skating world,” Dieck said.

“Both of us love football so much and have grown up watching football, so being able to combine it on the ice was really fun,” Smart elaborated. “It's brought in a whole other different fan base as well.”

Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck are ice dance's new duo - with experience on their side: "The connection we have is great"

Smart and Dieck stretched and took position for the kick-off to the sounds of Chumbawamba's 1997 hit “Tubthumping”. Moments later, when U2’s “Beautiful Day” came over the speakers at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, they were already deep into the beautiful game.

Lifts and twizzles may not be standard football manoeuvres, but the Italian crowds loved every second of the performance. Their cheers got even louder as the first notes of Gala’s “Freed from Desire” sounded and Dieck hauled out a goal net for the penalty shoot-out.

"It's fun for us to skate," said Smart, who emerged the victor from the decisive round of penalties. "We get to do some skating in it, but we also get to play around and kick a ball on the ice."

Smart was inspired to create this football-themed gala program after spotting the many European stops on the 2025-26 figure skating calendar, including one stop in particular.

A native of Sheffield and lifelong supporter of Sheffield United F.C., the Olympian jumped at the opportunity to put on her beloved stripes when the 2026 ISU European Figure Skating Championships returned to her hometown after 14 years.

“We were looking at the competitions coming up and how often we were in Europe and the love that we have for football,” Smart said. “Going home to Sheffield for Europeans, I was like, ‘How sick would it be to wear the Sheffield United top?’.”

Smart initially planned to wear the football jerseys of each country where she and Dieck would compete in the Olympic season. And while she was not able to live out that vision due to some technical restrictions, the duo proudly wore their Spanish jerseys throughout the performances instead – something that spiked the interest of one world-famous football club in Catalonia.

“We're like, ‘Hey, it paid off!’,” Smart said about receiving the invitation to El Clásico in Camp Nou. “They can't ask to see our football skills but yeah, we’re mixing the sports together.”

Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck’s 2026 FIFA World Cup allegiances

The restrictions on wearing other national jerseys, and especially the Sheffield United top, may have come as a relief to Dieck. The ice dancer grew up in Dortmund and is a steadfast Borussia Dortmund supporter.

When it comes to international football, however, there are no disagreements between these skating partners as to the team they will be cheering for when 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in June.

“It's going to be Spain because I love the country,” Dieck said. “I'm truly proud to represent the country over the last two and a half years, so three seasons now, with so much support from the federation and the whole country.”

Smart admits she was in limbo during the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euro, where England and Spain clashed in the final, with England ultimately defending their title in a penalty shoot-out. But her allegiance is clear now.

“It was funny watching the [Euro] last summer when it was England-Spain in the final and I was like, ‘Oh, who do I cheer for?’,” Smart recalled. “I definitely had an England jersey on at that game and then when Spain [scored], I was, ‘Take it off! Put my Spanish one on.’ But no, I'll definitely be cheering on Spain!”

Smart first represented Spain when she partnered with Adrián Díaz in 2015, until his retirement after Beijing 2022. Later that year, she looked into starting a new partnership with Dieck.

When Smart and Dieck first teamed up, their foreign roots were a point of contention for Spanish audiences. But as time went on, they not only learned to blend their two different cultures together but also found an element to their partnership that is uniquely Spanish.

“Our humour,” Smart said about the common Spanish spark between her and Dieck. “The humour that we have together. Spanish people and the Spanish culture is, I'd say, very laid back and that's something that we've developed as a team as well, not taking things too seriously all the time. And that's honestly quite difficult for Tim, being German. At first, everything needed to be on point, very structured. And I'm the opposite. I'm very laid back, whatnot. So, we met in the middle of that.”

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