End of an Era: Torvill & Dean Break Silence on Retirement—40 Years After Their Iconic Olympic Gold!
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean break their silence on retiring from ice skating – 40 years after winning Olympic gold
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean broke their silence on retiring from ice skating on Wednesday morning.
Jayne, 66, and Christopher, 65, skated to victory at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics on Valentine’s Day in 1984, winning the gold medal and earning the highest ever score for a single performance.
The British skating duo will embark on one final UK tour next year, which will be their swansong and mark 50 years since they formed their skating partnership in 1975 – before then officially hanging up their skates.
On Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain, hosts Ed Balls and Charlotte Hawkins spoke to the pair in their first interview since announcing their retirement.
Live from Sarajevo, where the couple skated to Olympic gold, the iconic duo joined GMB from where it all started to discuss their last farewell tour.
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean announce they are retiring
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Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean broke their silence on retiring from ice skating on Wednesday morning (seen at press conference in Sarajevo to announce their retirement)
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Jayne, 66, and Christopher, 65, skated to victory at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics on Valentine’s Day in 1984, winning the gold medal and earning the highest ever score for a single performance
On why the duo felt like now was the right time, Chris said: ‘Gosh well 40 years ago is a long time. In actual fact, next year in 2025, we have been skating together for 50 years and we felt that was a really nice round number to say ‘we have had a wonderful time but it’s time to retire a little bit and hang up the skates’.
‘No more touring except for the last tour we are hoping to do next year.’
Jayne added: ‘We feel that it will be the last tour but it will be a celebration of everything that we have been through since 1984, winning the Olympics, which opened up the door to lots of other things in the future.’
On being back in Sarajevo, Chris said: ‘It’s fantastic being here in Sarajevo where it all started for us.’
He continued: ‘It’s quite emotional actually and nostalgic at the same time. We went back into the Zetra Stadium where we actually performed and stood on the spot where we knelt down to start the Bolero routine and I sort of had tingles in the back of my neck being there again.
Speaking about whether they knew 40 years ago what a big moment it was, Jayne said: ‘No I don’t think we ever could have imagined. Leading up to the Olympics, we were just focused and in the zone.
‘We hadn’t even thought of what was happening beyond that moment. We were just so ready to do the performance and hoped that it all went well and we were just so relieved getting to the end of it and that we couldn’t have skated it any better because we worked so hard to get to that moment.’
On Tuesday making the announcement Chris said that the pair had agreed it was the ‘right time’ to stop skating as they are ‘not spring chickens anymore’ and want to walk away while they’re still able to do it ‘to a certain degree.’
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On Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain, hosts Ed Balls and Charlotte Hawkins spoke to the pair in their first interview since announcing their retirement
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Live from Sarajevo, where the couple skated to Olympic gold, the iconic duo joined GMB from where it all started to discuss their last farewell tour
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The British skating duo will embark on one final UK tour next year, which will be their swansong and mark 50 years since they formed their skating partnership in 1975 – before then officially hanging up their skates
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Jayne wore a smart blue suit for the press conference as they visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to mark the 40th anniversary of winning gold medals at the 1984 Winter Olympics
The pair became international stars after receiving 12 perfect 6’s while skating to Maurice Ravel’s Boléro at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo, prompting a standing ovation.
It was watched on television by 24 million people in the UK and one month later they received an even better score at the World Championships.
Their farewell tour, Torvill and Dean: Our Last Dance, will run from April 12 to May 11 2025 with dates in London, Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow.
‘I think there comes a time when you know,’ said Chris.
‘We’re not spring chickens anymore but we’re still able to do it to a certain degree that we feel good about it but that will go.
‘So, I think this is the right time for us to be able to do that and go and skate and do some of the old routines, be very nostalgic, but then do some new fun, upbeat (dances) with friends of ours from the skating world and from Dancing On Ice.’
He said that they are looking at the tour as a ‘celebration’ but predicts they will feel emotional about their final skate the nearer is gets.
‘We’ll have a sense of pride as well, I think, of what we’ve done and still been able to do over the years, bringing competitive skating and competitions and then entertainment through the TV screen,’ he said.
‘I think we’ll get reflective and look at it not in a sad way but in a happy way.’
Following the end of their competitive career, Torvill and Dean started coaching and choreographing and regularly toured, before becoming the faces of ITV’s reality show Dancing on Ice in 2006.
The show went on hiatus in 2014 and when it was revived in 2018 they returned as head judges. It will air a special commemorative tribute to their 1984 gold medal-winning performance during this Sunday’s episode.
‘That was really a launching pad of then going off to do other things,’ said of their beloved 1984 routine.
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On why the duo felt like now was the right time, Chris said: ‘Gosh well 40 years ago is a long time. In actual fact, next year in 2025, we have been skating together for 50 years!’
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Following the end of their competitive career, they started coaching and choreographing and regularly toured, before becoming the faces of ITV’s reality show Dancing on Ice in 2006 (pictured)
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The couple are pictured at the 1994 British Championships together amid their competitive career
Torvill and Dean recreate Bolero dance on natural ice lake
‘Touring around the world, skating in front of hundreds of thousands of people and then Dancing On Ice starting up because of winning the Olympics.’
On taking one last final tour, Chris said on GMB: ‘The tour is going to be a celebration and nostalgic at the same time. You will see some old numbers that we have done in the past and who knows there might be a Bolero in there as well.
‘But we want to bring along our friends we have met over the years onto the ice with us in a celebration for that one last tour.
‘It’s 50 years of us together so we would like to say thankyou to everybody and if you would like to come along, then come along.’
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