On this day in 1984: Torvill and Dean celebrate Olympic gold success in Sarajevo

British skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won Olympic gold in Sarajevo in the ice dance category with perfect scores of 6.0 from all 12 judges, on this day in 1984.

The duo from Nottingham performed a dance interpretation of Ravel’s Bolero at the Zetra Olympic Hall which captured the hearts of the 24 million television viewers watching from Britain.

Torvill and Dean’s Valentine’s Day performance followed a sustained period of success at the World, European and British Championships during the early part of the 80s.

After a fifth-place finish at the 1980 Winter Olympics, the pair would begin a glittering gold-medal spell with the pinnacle their display in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina but part of Yugoslavia at the time.

Expectation had been built following their dominance on the World and European stage and, after not skating for the first 20 seconds of their routine – in order to comply with Olympic rules – Torvill and Dean burst into life.

With passion and intensity on display with aplomb, the finale of the athletes collapsing on the ice and laying motionless in each other’s arms sparked a standing ovation inside the arena and most likely in homes up and down their home country.

The 12 judges were in unanimous agreement and perfect scores of 6.0 were awarded, a feat yet to be emulated.

Torvill and Dean turned professional after their Bolero performance but competed in the 1994 Winter Olympics where they won bronze before retiring from competition.

Since then the duo have branched out into ice shows, coaching and choreographing before becoming the faces of ITV’s Dancing on Ice, which ran from 2006 until 2014 and subsequently returned in 2017 with it still running on a yearly basis.

Torvill and Dean also went back to Sarajevo to dance the Bolero one more time in 2014 to mark the 30th anniversary of their perfect display.