Torvill & Dean (GBR) - 1994 Lillehammer, Ice Dancing, Free Dance

Hamar, NORWAY - 1994 Winter Games, Ice Dancing, Free Dance - Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of Great Britain went back to the drawing boards and re-choreographed 80% of their Free Dance after receiving a tepid response from the audience and the judges at the European Championships weeks before. They thought by recycling some of their big flair and acrobatic moves would liven up the dance. It would be well received by the audience, but the judges would place them a disappointing 3rd in the Free Dance. That would drop them from 1st to 3rd Place overall. Many would question the result as judges would cite the fact that they used old moves as a reason to not score them higher -- lack of originality. Others would say they were too old and were unable to skate as fast as Grishuk & Platov or Usova & Zhulin of Russia. Yet, others would point out the number of rule violations in Grishuk & Platov's dance that were penalized.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Torvill
• Dean
• 1994
• figure
• skating

[hundetuem]

Absolutely charming!

Sadly, there was a time when the judges just let the russians win, whatever happened.

[gonzo77ffm]

the real winners of the Gold medal!

[lhsouthern1988]

how could they compete against the persistant soviet bloc bias that reared its ugly head in salt lake? the russian couple skated a horrible routine and STILL won

[justa335]

@ja3399

I agree with you on all counts.

[beckerbombs]

@ja3399 They were deducted .1 for the illegal back flip at the end I think. Even without that deduction I am not sure if they would have finished any higher than 3rd though, but it would have been alot closer in the scores. They might have even switched the ordinals between the 2 Russian teams and flipped their placing as well.

[ja3399]

I do not agree with the technical marks: not then, not now, after all these years. Thanks again Axel. You give so much to figure skating fans.