Torvill and Dean

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
Torvill and Dean on the Dancing on Ice tour in Manchester, 2012
BornNottingham
Figure skating career
Country Great Britain
Retired1984, 1994 (amateur), 1998 (professional)
Medal record
Figure skating: ice dancing
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1984 Sarajevo Ice dancing
Bronze medal – third place 1994 Lillehammer Ice dancing
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1981 Hartford Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1982 Copenhagen Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1983 Helsinki Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1984 Ottawa Ice dancing
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1981 Innsbruck Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1982 Lyon Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1984 Budapest Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1994 Copenhagen Ice dancing
British Figure Skating Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1977 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1978 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1979 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1980 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1981 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1982 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1983 Nottingham Ice dancing
Gold medal – first place 1994 Sheffield Ice dancing
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Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are British ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions.

At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single programme, receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge, after skating to Maurice Ravel's Boléro.[1][2] One of the most-watched television events ever in the United Kingdom, their 1984 Olympics performance was watched by a British television audience of more than 24 million people.[2] The couple went on to record an even higher score at the 1984 World Championships, thirteen 6.0s and five 5.9s.

The pair turned professional following the 1984 World Championships, regaining amateur status briefly ten years later in 1994 to compete in the Olympics once again. The pair retired from competitive skating for good in 1998 when they toured one last time with their own show, Ice Adventures, before rejoining Stars on Ice for one more season. Their final routine was performed to Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years", a routine they had devised a few years earlier for competition. Although remaining close friends, the pair did not skate together again until they were enticed out of retirement to take part in ITV's Dancing on Ice. Their career was portrayed in the 2018 biographical film Torvill & Dean.

Both are from Nottingham, England, where the National Ice Centre is accessed through a public area known as Bolero Square, in honour of the pair's Olympic achievements. There is also a housing estate in the Wollaton area of the city with streets named 'Torvill Drive' and 'Dean Close', with many of the surrounding roads named after coaches and dances associated with the pair. In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, the British public voted Torvill and Dean's winning performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics as Number 8 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.[3]

  1. ^ "1984: Torvill and Dean's perfection". BBC. 15 March 2017.
  2. ^ a b "1984: British ice couple score Olympic gold". BBC On the Day, 14 February 1984. 14 February 1984. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  3. ^ "100 Greatest Sporting Moments – Results". London: Channel 4. 2002. Archived from the original on 4 February 2002. Retrieved 6 December 2016.