With a dip and a spin and a smoldering glance or two, Torvill and Dean stepped right back where they wanted to be - into contention for a gold medal.
After skating a sizzling rhumba Sunday night, the mythic ice dancing duo drew a couple of perfect scores and a perfect position to win the Olympics. Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were tied with Maia Usova-Alexander Zhulin, the reigning world champions. Right behind were Oksana Gritschuk-Evgeny Platov.To win, Torvill and Dean had to beat the two Russian couples in tonight's free dance. The complex scoring structure of ice dance allows that any of the top three pairs can claim the gold medal if they win the free dance, worth 50 percent of the total score.
"It's been a challenge," said Dean, who with his partner won the 1984 gold medal. "It feels good being 10 years away and still being competitive with the best of the world."
The couple that entranced their Sarajevo audience with the passionate "Bolero" and drew a row of perfect 6.0s for artistry decided to play it straighter a decade later. Skating to an Irving Berlin composition, Torvill and Dean have evoked the spirits of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers with a ballroom dance on ice.
The couple changed about 80 percent of the dance after they competed in the European championships last month. There, Torvill and Dean won the overall title, but their free dance placed second behind Gritschuk-Platov, who bopped to a 1950s rock 'n' roll beat.
At the January competition at Copenhagen, Torvill and Dean were tied with Usova-Zhulin going into the free skate. The Russian couple, performing a youthful folk music program, skated after T&D and were ranked first by five of nine judges.
In the original dance Sunday night, Torvill and Dean performed a sexy rhumba filled with quick steps and flowing spins. But best of all, they rekindled memories of Sarajevo when they received two perfect 6.0 marks for presentation, from Britain and Ukraine.
Dressed in black costumes with green sequins that sparkled brighter with every move, T&D showed off their smooth strokes and near-perfect synchronization in their two-minute routine to "The History of Love." They looked like mirror images sliding into smooth lunges and finished to roars from the crowd.