Ice skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean announce retirement ahead of final UK tour

Marking the 40th anniversary of their Olympic gold win, British ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have announced they will be retiring from skating together in 2025.

The pair from Nottingham made British sporting history after winning a gold medal for their now-famous routine to Ravel's Bolero at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

Forty years later, they have returned to Sarajevo to celebrate - and confirmed they will embark on one final UK tour next year.

Reflecting on how their win 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."

In their famous Valentine's Day performance, the duo did not skate for the first 20 seconds of their routine – in compliance with Olympic rules.

The finale saw the athletes collapse on the ice and lay motionless in each other’s arms, sparking a standing ovation and perfect scores of 6.0 from the 12 judges.

Recalling the day, Torvill, now 66, revealed they had not had many opportunities to practise the routine in the arena before the final, but were given a 6:00am slot on the day which no other competitors in their training group turned up for due to the performance being that evening.

Dean, 65, said after they performed the routine, they heard a "ripple of applause all around the gods of the building" from the cleaners, a memory from the day which has stuck with them.

He recalled: "When you think about the whole day, nobody was there, and then as the day goes on, people start to fill the building and the competition happens and it gets to a climax and the gold medals are awarded.

"Then the people start to disappear and then you’re just left with how it was in the morning, we’re almost closing the door on the day."

Torvill and Dean visit the gymnasium that now stands at the location of the Zetra Olympic Hall ice rink, where they won their gold medals. Credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

He also revealed the Princess Royal waited for them in the Olympic village with Champagne to celebrate despite them not arriving until late after being held up by the Olympic doping checks after the performance.

Torvill and Dean turned professional after their Bolero performance, competing in the 1994 Winter Olympics where they won bronze before retiring from competition.

They later branched out into touring, coaching and choreographing before becoming the faces of ITV’s Dancing On Ice, which ran from 2006 until 2014, and later becoming head judges on the show when it was revived in 2018.

They will now retire from dancing together - after their upcoming tour, 'Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance', which will run from April 12 to May 11 2025.

The shows, which includes dates in Nottingham and Birmingham, will celebrate 50 years since they formed their skating partnership in 1975. Tickets go on sale at 8.00am on Wednesday 14 February - or ‘Bolero Day’, as the pair have nicknamed it.

Reflecting on coming to the decision to retire, Dean said: "I think there comes a time when you know.

"We’re not spring chickens any more 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 [routines] with friends of ours from the skating world and from Dancing On Ice.

"We’re looking at it as a celebration."

The pair joined children from East Sarajevo and Sarajevo at the Zetra Skating Club on their 40th anniversary visit. Credit: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Dean added he feels they will get more emotional about things coming to a close nearer the time.

"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."

Among those they have inspired is British ice skating number one Lewis Gibson, who has previously said he started skating after watching Dancing On Ice, and his ice skating partner Lilah Fear.

Torvill is sure they will get a medal at the next Winter Olympics in 2026 - and hopes it will be a gold one, which could channel more money into the sport in the UK.

"You really need to build into the infrastructure at a very early age and that’s where the funding needs to be, is to support young skaters and staying with them, developing them all the way through", Dean added.

Dancing On Ice will also commemorate their milestone during this Sunday’s episode with a special video package, and the duo said their performance in the finale will be an "emotional" one.

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