When did Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win the gold medal? Year Bolero performers lit up Winter Olympics

So far, at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Team GB have had to be patient in their medal hopes.

While there are still a number of realistic podium opportunities to be decided, and the men’s curling team are guaranteed at least a silver following their semi-final over the USA on Thursday, no British athlete has yet been able to write their name into the history books alongside some of the games’ most famous competitors.

In the United Kingdom, there are arguably no former medallists as iconic as Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, but when did they win their legendary figure skating gold?

Here’s everything you need to know...

When did Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win gold?

Torvill and Dean won their famous gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

The pair performed their routine to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, and scored twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s from the judges, as well as a clean sweep of 6.0s for artistic impression.

Their total score made them the highest-scoring figure skaters of all-time for a single a programme.

The performance remains one of the most-watched television events in British history, with an audience of more than 24 million people tuning in to witness.

In 2002, nearly 20 years after Sarajevo, a poll conducted by Channel 4 saw the British public vote for Torvill and Dean’s Bolero as the eighth greatest moment in the nation’s sporting history.

What did Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean do after winning gold?

After the pair won gold, they turned professional and toured Australia, the USA, and Europe with their own ice skating shows, as well as working in choreography for other skaters.

In 1994, a decade after their iconic gold, they returned to the Olympics with a performance at Norway’s Lillehammer games. Unable to replicate their legendary display from 10 years earlier, they still managed to secure a bronze medal.

The duo officially retired from professional skating in 1998, and have acted as coaches, choreographers, and performers in ITV reality show Dancing on Ice since 2006.

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