Christopher Dean

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Chris in 2007

Christopher Dean

Figure skating
Olympic medal record
Gold	1984 Sarajevo	Ice dancing
Bronze	1994 Lillehammer	Ice dancing

Christopher Colin Dean, OBE (born 27 July 1958 in Nottingham, England) is an English 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 rank of Officer of The Order of the British Empire in 1999.

1 Skating career
2 Personal life
3 Results with Jayne Torvill
4 External links

[edit] Skating career

Christopher Dean began to skate at the age of 10 after he received a pair of skates as a Christmas present. His parents were keen ballroom dancers. At school he was the captain of the school's football team and he saw ice skating as a sport that was athletic and graceful. 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 and Dean team.

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

[edit] Personal life

Between 1991 and 1993 Dean was married to French Canadian world ice dance champion Isabelle Duchesnay, whom he met while choreographing the routines of her and her brother Paul Duchesnay in the late 1980s.

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.