Christopher Dean joins iceSheffield!
Freshly back from the latest series of ITVs Dancing on Ice, Olympic gold medallist Christopher Dean OBE is joining forces with Sheffield City Trust to become a resident coach at iceSheffield, a centre of excellence for figure skating.
World iconic ice dancer Christopher who won gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, with his partner Jane Torvill OBE hopes to pass on some of his knowledge and help some of the talented youngsters coming through to pursue a career in ice dance and compete at the highest level.
The seven times British Champions, Christopher and Jane also achieved four times European Champions, four times World Champions and five times World Professional champions. Talking about his new role at iceSheffield Christopher said: “It’s a pleasure to take on this role and join the fantastic team of coaches working for Sheffield City Trust at iceSheffield.
“During the time I’ve already spent at the rink I have seen some incredible talent and I‘m really looking forward to working with some of these young skaters and seeing what they can achieve.”
iceSheffield is proud to host and deliver the majority of elite performance programmes for figure skating and ice hockey in the UK and is in an enviable position as it is one of only two facilities in the UK that has two Olympic sized ice pads.
Pictured left - right: Christopher Dean OBE and Billy Wilson French
Chris, a talented choreographer, also launched the British Ice Skating (BIS) Academy of Dance at iceSheffield alongside skating partner Jayne Torvill OBE last summer. The academy led by BIS, and a range of BIS coaches supported by Sheffield City Trust, aims to give skaters the opportunity to develop the skills required to become a World or Olympic champion and reach the top of their game.
Shaun Lough, General Manager at iceSheffield said:” We are over the moon to have Christopher Dean join the team here at iceSheffield, he is a welcome addition to our already incredibly talented and dedicated team of coaches.
“It’s a very exciting time for us right now with a lot of amazing ice skaters shining a spotlight on the rink here and having Christopher on the team will enable us to help even more gifted skaters work towards their dreams.”
A recent BBC documentary series Freeze featured talented young ice dancer Billy Wilson French from Barnsley who has represented Great Britain internationally, in his quest to find a perfect partner. Billy was successful and the documentary series showed Christopher Dean OBE meeting Billy and his new American partner Katarina DelCamp at iceSheffield where he was impressed with the pairs potential and agreed to coach the aspiring couple.
Billy said: “It’s a real accolade that someone as iconic and legendary as Christopher Dean has chosen to be mine and Kat’s head coach.
“A year ago, who would have thought Christopher Dean would have been heading up our coaching team with the ultimate goal being the Olympics.”
Billy and Katarina are now training hard working on their routines for the British Figure Skating Championships Qualifiers which will take place in August this year and hopefully win them a spot at the British Championships which take place at iceSheffield in December this year.
British Ice Skating approved ice skating lessons are available for children of all ages and adults at iceSheffield. For more information or to enquire about iceSheffield’s Learn to Skate programme, click the link here - https://www.sheffieldcitytrust.org/sport/lessons/ice-skating-lessons
