ICE skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean will be given a damehood and knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours.
They won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics then wowed fans on ITV’s Dancing on Ice.
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Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performing Bolero in Nottingham this July to mirror 1984’s Olympic goldCredit: PA
The couple won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics and will be given a damehood and knighthood in the King’s New Year HonoursCredit: Getty – Contributor
The pair were enticed out of retirement in 2006 to become choreographers then judges on ITV’s Dancing on IceCredit: Getty
The record-breaking Olympic champions hung up their ice skates after 50 years this summer — and will now will made a Dame and Knight in the New Year.
Their gongs are a recognition of a lifetime of service to figure skating which has won them millions of fans, including royalty.
Torvill, 68, and Dean, 67, were appointed MBEs in 1981 and OBEs in 2000, and many have campaigned for years to get these upgraded to the top gongs.
Put together in 1976, the Nottingham pair won a huge haul of golds in the World, European and British Championships.
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But it was their jaw-dropping performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo that turned them into global superstars.
They skated to a special arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, and in four minutes, 28 seconds, reinvented their sport.
The pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time — scoring 12 perfect 6.0s from the judges.
More than 24 million Brits watched their triumph, including Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace.
She was said to have stood up and applauded as she watched them get their gold medals.
Afterwards, the Queen sent a congratulatory telegram signed Elizabeth R — a very rare honour.
It read: “Many congratulations on your superb performance which I watched with great pleasure and which brought you such a well-deserved gold medal.”
Princess Anne had travelled to the Olympics and toasted the win with champagne in the stands.
Friends since their schooldays, Torvill and Dean had such intense on-ice chemistry that many fans hoped they would one day become a romantic couple too.
But they only shared a kiss once — as teenagers. And both went on to marry other people.
They have performed for royalty many times — including at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, a year when they helped carry the Olympic torch to London.
It was quite a journey meeting the Queen on these occasions. She was a wonderful, wonderful woman and monarch
Christopher Dean
They also had lunch with the Queen in the early 1980s after winning the World Championship.
Recalling their long friendship, Dean said: “It was quite a journey meeting the Queen on these occasions.
“She was a wonderful, wonderful woman and monarch.”
He even received a letter from Her Majesty days before her death, after writing to thank her for her service to the country.
He said: “I was so touched.
“I didn’t even expect to get a reply.
Torvill, 68, and Dean, 67, were appointed MBEs in 1981Credit: Alamy
The legendary skaters went on to receive OBEs in 2000 and many have campaigned for years to get these upgraded to the top gongsCredit: PA:Press Association
“I think we all hold our heads higher when we are abroad because of what the Queen represented.
“Everybody around the world knows about the monarch.
“I think we are all proud of that, wherever we go.”
They were enticed out of retirement in 2006 to become choreographers then judges on ITV’s Dancing on Ice.
The show — which finished earlier this year — won them a fresh legion of fans.
Many congratulations on your superb performance which I watched with great pleasure and which brought you such a well-deserved gold medal
Queen Elizabeth II
In 2013, Torvill and Dean performed for Charles and Camilla at the Royal Variety Show.
This year they embarked on farewell tour Torvill and Dean: Our Last Dance.
Finishing where they had started five decades ago, they closed at Nottingham’s Bolero Square with one final performance of their famous routine.
Dean said it was brilliant to go out “on a high”.
He added: “It almost felt like the Olympics again.
“It was that moment that was so defining and so special.”
In 2018, Torvill admitted the pair were hoping for a damehood and knighthood.
She told The Sun: “When it (that year’s list) came out I thought, ‘Oh I guess we didn’t make it then’ but that’s fine. Lots of worthy people made it.”
The Cabinet Office last night said it does not comment on honours speculation.
The Dame Commander medalCredit: Alamy
The Knights Bachelor medalCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd
