Torvill and Dean

Ice skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were sports superstars in Australia, and around the world, in the 1980s. In 1984 the pair were on tour with the Russian Olympic team and were mobbed everywhere they went by excited fans. 

The tour was in the same year as their gold medal win at the Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games, where their Paso Doble and Bolero performances scored unprecedented perfect 6s from the judges. Here they pose from the forecourt the Sydney Opera House with the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.

In the era before digital photography, this publicity image would have been taken on photographic film. There is no mistaking that this photograph is taken in the 1980s judging from the fashion the pair wear. Dean wears a Ken Done jumper with one of his distinctive paintings of Sydney Harbour and a pair of dark denim jeans. Torvill teams fawn overalls with a striped shirt and white court shoes.

Notes by Beth Taylor