Christopher DEAN

Christopher Dean and his partner Jayne Torvill broke the Russian domination of ice skate dancing and mesmerised the world with their interpretation of Ravel’s Bolero

Russian domination broken

At the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games, Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill from Nottingham, England, won the ice dance competition. This was the first time that the competition had been won by a non-Russian couple.

Ravel’s Bolero

The English couple mesmerised the world with their breathtaking interpretation of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. The judges awarded them 12 scores of 6.0 out of 18 marks, including across-the-board perfect scores for artistic impression.

Clever timing

The couple managed to present their 4-minute 28-second dance despite the fact that the time limit was 4 minutes 10 seconds. They did this by moving their bodies to the music for 18 seconds before they started skating.

Bronze return

Torvill and Dean returned to the Olympic Winter Games in 1994. However, they could not match the astonishing performance they had produced 10 years earlier and finished in the bronze medal position.