14 February 2024 , 09:35
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Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill have shared on Good Morning Britain their poignant reason for retiring from skating, decades on from their huge career taking off.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, the Dancing On Ice judges confirmed this week that they were hanging up their skates, 40 years on from their rise to stardom. In 1984, Torvill and Dean performed their gold medal-winning routine at the Olympic Games, cementing their place in sporting history.
Now, the pair are retiring from the rink with one final tour on the way, which will be a "nostalgic celebration". The pair spoke to Good Morning Britain on Wednesday after the news broke, and told the hosts why now was the time to leave skating behind.
The pair revealed that it's been 50 years, next year, since they started skating together. They now feel it's the perfect time to retire from the sport, with their big farewell to fans taking place next year.
Speaking on GMB, Chris explained: "Gosh well 40 years ago is a long time. In actual fact, next year in 2025, we have been skating together for 50 years and we felt that was a really nice round number to say ‘we have had a wonderful time but it’s time to retire a little bit and hang up the skates’. No more touring except for the last tour we are hoping to do next year."
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Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill have shared on Good Morning Britain their poignant reason for retiring from skating (ITV)Jayne added: "We feel that it will be the last tour but it will be a celebration of everything that we have been through since 1984, winning the Olympics, which opened up the door to lots of other things in the future."
On saying goodbye and making their final tour a "celebration", Chris went on: "The tour is going to be a celebration and nostalgic at the same time. You will see some old numbers that we have done in the past and who knows there might be a Bolero in there as well. But we want to bring along our friends we have met over the years onto the ice with us in a celebration for that one last tour.
"It’s 50 years of us together so we would like to say thank you to everybody and if you would like to come along, then come along." In their chat with The Mirror, it was revealed they were sticking with ITV's Dancing On Ice while hanging up their skates as far as competing and tours are concerned.
In 1984, Torvill and Dean performed their gold medal-winning routine at the Olympic Games (Getty Images)Reflecting on the decision to draw things to a close, Chris 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 we feel good about it, but that will go.
"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 [dances] with friends of ours from the skating world and from Dancing On Ice.
"We’ll have a sense of pride as well, I think, of what we’ve done. I think we'll get reflective and look at it not in a sad way but in a happy way." They savoured every moment of their time back at the scene of their greatest triumph.
"The sadness is that the original ice rink was bombed in the Bosnian war. A new one has been built and it was there that they put a group of primary schoolchildren through their ice-skating paces. Jayne said: "It was lovely. It takes you right back almost 60 years to when we started out."
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