Ice Skating
She 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 twelve perfect 6.0 marks, one of five occasions they were awarded all perfect scores for artistic impression. This is one of the most popular achievements in the history of British sport, watched by a British television audience of twenty four million.
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 the rules for professional skaters, allowing the pair to participate in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer where they won a bronze medal.
Torvill took a seven-year break from skating from 1998–2005. In January 2006, she and Dean began starring in the ITV show Dancing on Ice. Each year, the show runs from January to March and then goes on tour to arenas across the United Kingdom. In November 2011, Torvill said, "the standard each year has gotten higher and higher, which is exciting for us – to think what we can achieve with people who have never skated or are relatively unknown to skating."
Torvill and Dean are ambassadors for the 2012 European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield, England.
Read more about this topic: Jayne Torvill
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