Torvill and Dean: Ice-skating stars reveal farewell tour - including West Midlands date
British ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean today marked the 40th anniversary of their Olympic gold success by announcing they will be retiring from skating together in 2025.
But there will be one last hurrah – with an arena tour that is set to include a date in the West Midlands.
The duo from Nottingham wrote their names in British sporting history at the 1984 Winter Games following their routine to Ravel's Bolero at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo.
Forty years on from their Valentine's Day performance, they have returned to Sarajevo to celebrate the day with the city, where they confirmed they will embark on one last UK tour next year.
Reflecting on how their golden moment inspired more appreciation of ice skating, Dean said: "That was really a launching pad of then going off to do other things.
"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."
Torvill and Dean's Valentine's Day performance followed a sustained period of success at the World, European and British Championships during the early part of the 80s.
As they took to ice at the 1984 Winter Games, they did not skate for the first 20 seconds of their routine - in order to comply with Olympic rules - before they burst into life.
With intense passion and intensity on display, the finale saw the athletes collapse on the ice and lay motionless in each other's arms, prompting a standing ovation inside the arena and perfect scores of 6.0 from the 12 judges.
