Christopher Dean

Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHR : Christopher Dean

---

Christopher Colin Dean, OBE (born 27 July, 1958 in Nottingham, Great Britain) is a British figure skater who won a gold medal in ice dancing at the 1984 Winter Olympics with his skating partner Jayne Torvill. They also won a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Dean is from Calverton, Nottinghamshire. His father, Colin Dean, was an electrician.

Dean was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1999.

Skating career

Christopher Dean began to skate at the age of 10 after he received a pair of skates as a Christmas present. Dean's first ice partner was Sandra Elson. They began skating together when he was 14 and they competed as ice dancers for a few years. However, despite becoming British Junior Dance champions the team parted as Dean and Elson did not get along well. Dean then agreed to try out Jayne Torvill, who was another skater at the Nottingham rink. The pair were coached first by Janet Sawbridge, but Betty Callaway became their coach in 1978.

Dean left school aged 16 and joined the Nottingham Police Force in 1974. It was challenging for him to undergo training as a police cadet as his schedule often clashed with his skating training sessions. Thus Torvill and Dean had to practise during his off-hours. These difficult times pulled them closer and gave them a sense of discipline that was to prove vital throughout their career.

By 1980 Torvill and Dean had progressed not only to become British National Dance Champions, but were in medal contention in international competitions. It was then that Chris realized he could no longer balance his skating and police careers. He resigned from the police force. Torvill soon quit her job as well. Dean also served as the chief choreographer of the Torvill & Dean team.

Torvill & Dean's free program at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, performed to the music of Maurice Ravel's Boléro, became world famous. They received nine "6.0" marks for the artistic impression, the highest possible score, and the only time ever that a perfect score was achieved. This was one of the most popular achievements in the history of British sport, watched by a British television audience of twenty-four million people.

Torvill & Dean turned professional after their 1984 Olympic win. Under then Olympic Games rules, as professionals, they became ineligible to participate in Olympic competition. In 1993 the International Skating Union relaxed its rules for professional skaters, which allowed the pair to participate in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where they won a bronze medal.

Torvill & Dean were admitted to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1989.

Personal life

Dean was married to Isabelle Duchesnay, a French ice dancer, from 1991 to 1993. They met when Dean was choreographer to the brother-sister Duchesney team in the late 1980s-early 1990s.

On 15 October, 1994, Dean married Jill Trenary, an American skater, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have two sons, Jack Robert and Sam Colin, and currently reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Results with Jayne Torvill

• 1980 – 5th place
• 1984 – 1st place
• 1994 – 3rd place

• 1978 – 11th place
• 1979 – 8th place
• 1980 – 4th place
• 1981 – 1st place
• 1982 – 1st place
• 1983 – 1st place
• 1984 – 1st place

• 1978 – 9th place
• 1979 – 6th place
• 1980 – 4th place
• 1981 – 1st place
• 1982 – 1st place
• 1983 – did not participate
• 1984 – 1st place
• 1994 – 1st place

External links

• [BBC story on Torvill and Dean's Olympic gold]
• [Care to Ice Dance? - Torvill & Dean]
• [olympic.org] Athlete Profile - Dean

|- style="text-align: center;"

 

---

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

?