Jayne Torvill, OBE (born 7 October 1957, Nottingham, England) is a British Ice dancer who, with her skating partner Christopher Dean, won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Biography
Torvill became hooked on ice skating at the age of 8 following an after-school trip to the local ice rink. In 1971 at age 14, Torvill became the British National Pairs Champion with her then partner, Michael Hutchenson. After parting with Hutchenson, Torvill continued to skate on her own for a while before teaming up with Dean in 1975. After placing 5th in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, Dean gave up his job as a policeman and Torvill gave up hers as an insurance clerk to skate together full-time.
Torvill and Dean's free program at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, performed to the music of Maurice Ravel's Boléro, became world famous. They received nine perfect "6.0" marks for artistic impression, the only time ever that all perfect scores were achieved. This was one of the most popular achievements in the history of British sport, watched by a British television audience of twenty-four million people.
Torvill and Dean turned professional after their 1984 Olympic win, and under then-existing Olympic Committee rules their professional status made them ineligible to compete in the Olympics again. However, in 1993, the International Skating Union relaxed its rules for professional skaters, which allowed the pair to participate in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where they won a bronze medal.
Torvill was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000. She currently resides in Sussex, England. She married Phil Christensen in 1990 and they have a son, Kieran and a daughter Jessica.
Torvill and Dean were admitted to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1989
Jayne Torvill along with her partner Christopher Dean now star in the hit ITV show Dancing on Ice. The duo took the show on tour to arenas across the country in 2007 and 2008.
Amateur competitive results (with Dean)
| Event | 1975-1976 | 1976-1977 | 1977-1978 | 1978-1979 | 1979-1980 | 1980-1981 | 1981-1982 | 1982-1983 | 1983-1984 | 1993-1994 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Games | 5th | 1st | 3rd | |||||||
| World Championships | 11th | 8th | 4th | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |||
| European Championships | 9th | 6th | 4th | 1st | 1st | Withdrew | 1st | 1st | ||
| British Championships | 4th | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |
| NHK Trophy | 2nd | |||||||||
| St Ivel International | 1st | 1st | ||||||||
| Oberstdorf | 2nd | 1st | ||||||||
| St Gervais | 1st | |||||||||
| Morzine Trophy | 2nd | |||||||||
| John Davis Trophy | 1st | |||||||||
| Northern Championships | 1st | |||||||||
| Sheffield Trophy | 1st | |||||||||
| Rotary Watches Competition | 2nd |
Professional competitive results (with Dean)
| Event | 1984 | 1985 | 1990 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Professional Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |
| Challenge of Champions | 1st | 1st | 1st | |||
| World Team Championship | 3rd | 1st | 1st |
See also
- Christopher Dean
- Torvill and Dean
- Ice Dancing
- World Figure Skating Championships
External links
- BBC story on Torvill and Dean's Olympic gold
- Care to Ice Dance? - Torvill & Dean
- olympic.org Athlete Profile - Torvill
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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original material was at Jayne Torvill. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Figure Skating Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the CC-by-SA License. |