Click here to find out about The Story of Bolero with Torvill and Dean
When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean competed in the 1984 Winter Olympics, they were already British, European and world champions.
But none of their previous successes could have prepared them for what they would achieve on the ice that day in Sarajevo. As 24 million people around the world sat glued to their TV sets, the pair became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time with their slow, sensuous performance of Ravel’s Bolero, winning 12 perfect sixes and bringing home the gold medal.
The Nottingham-born pair only started skating together in 1975, but just a year later they claimed their first trophy. By 1980 their dominance over the international skating scene was complete, winning every competition they entered for the next four years. But it was only in 1981 that they were finally able to give up their day jobs as a policeman (Dean) and an insurance clerk (Torvill).
After their unprecedented success at the Olympics they went professional, touring the world with their spectacular ice shows. As ever, Dean would dream up the routines and Torvill would work on the techniques to make them possible.
They returned to amateur skating in 1994 for the Winter Olympics, but were devastated when they only placed third. Five years later they retired from competitive skating, concentrating instead on choreography.
Then in 2006 they were back on the nation’s TV sets for the first series of Dancing on Ice, and appeared again in the second series in 2007. And in January the undisputed king and queen of the ice return for the third series.
