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‘How do I get down?’: Torvill and Dean on the highs and lows of their lives
@Source: brisbanetimes.com.au
We won a grant, too, and Jayne was the accountant, recording everything we spent. But I also had to add extra time to our schedule, knowing that Jayne would always be late. She’s the sort of girl who likes to step on the plane as they’re closing the doors, whereas I like to be there an hour-and-a-half beforehand.
Despite that yin and yang, we trained extremely hard together. Never missed a session. If Jayne was ever injured or didn’t feel well or it was that time of the month, she’d push through because the four minutes you have to perform at the Olympics might be like that. She didn’t want to be an injury away from obscurity.
‘I was in America and she was in England, but we’d call every day: we’ve always been there for each other, for big things and small.’Christopher Dean
I probably drove the partnership in a choreographic way, and Jayne was the stability and consistency that would take the idea and put it into practice: “You talk about going up,” she’d say, “but how do I get down?” We had points of friction, but we also never left the ice mid-quarrel, a bit like a married couple: don’t go to bed on an argument.
When you skate together as we do, everything is shared. Your thoughts and feelings become entwined. At the Olympics in 1984, we were in such a hypnotic place, and there was that huge sense of euphoric release. Then we transitioned from sportspeople to entertainers – skating with Yo Yo Ma or on natural ice on a lake in Alaska – and that gave us a second lease on life.
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