Jayne Torvill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
| Figure skating | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1984 Sarajevo | Ice dancing | |
| Bronze | 1994 Lillehammer | Ice dancing | |
Jayne Torvill, OBE (born October 7, 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.
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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.
| 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 |
- BBC story on Torvill and Dean's Olympic gold
- Care to Ice Dance? - Torvill & Dean
- olympic.org Athlete Profile - Torvill
| Preceded by Steve Cram |
BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1984 (joint with Christopher Dean) |
Succeeded by Barry McGuigan |
|
1976: Lyudmila Pakhomova & Aleksandr Gorshkov | 1980: Natalia Linichuk & Gennadi Karponossov | 1984: Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean | 1988: Natalia Bestemianova & Andrei Bukin | 1992: Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko | 1994: Oksana Grishuk & Evgeny Platov | 1998: Oksana Grishuk & Evgeny Platov | 2002: Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat | 2006: Tatiana Navka & Roman Kostomarov |
Categories: United Kingdom sportspeople stubs | European figure skating biography stubs | United Kingdom Olympic medalist stubs | BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners | British figure skaters | Ice dancers | Winter Olympics medalists | Figure skaters at the 1980 Winter Olympics | Figure skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics | Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics | Olympic figure skaters of Great Britain | People from Nottinghamshire | Members of the Order of the British Empire | Sport in Nottingham | People from Nottingham | 1957 births | Living people | Dancing on Ice