It was a heartwarming farewell routine as Christopher Dean and his iconic partner, Jayne Torvill, danced during the grand finale in March 2025. It brought an end to his seventeen-year stint as a judge on Dancing on Ice, and since then, the Olympic gold medalist has hung up his skates. Now on the sidelines for the first time in decades, ITV reportedly wants him back. Not on the ice, though, but in the Australian jungle.

For years, Christopher Dean has said no to I’m A Celebrity, but the Daily Star has reported that the Olympian’s answer might change. The British ice skating legend shot to fame during his heyday as an ice dancer. That was when he and Torvill became a household name. Now it’s reported that he’s in talks over a move to the jungle for the hit reality show.

“When bosses came knocking this year, he saw it in a different light. He’s recently retired and is looking for a new challenge,” a TV insider told Daily Star. “I’m A Celebrity is certainly that, so he has met with producers a few times already to talk through being a campmate for this year’s Australian series.”

A British reality show set in Australia, I’m A Celebrity takes celebrities and plunges them into uncomfortable conditions, largely in jungles. Not alone but in groups and forced to live without their comforts. During their stay, the celebrities undertake various challenges, with the winner earning food and comforts for their group and avoiding being voted out.

It is a fan-voted system, and the votes are all tallied to determine the winner. That’s one of the many reasons the series has become a ratings hit since its debut in 2002. So much so that the likes of Harry Redknapp, Diane Modahl, and Coleen Rooney, amongst others, have all taken part. However, Christopher Dean has always said no despite being on the show’s wishlist for years. 

And why wouldn’t he be? Dean became a sporting staple after his time as a professional figure skater and ice dancer. The 67-year-old retired as a two-time Olympic medalist, including an iconic gold at the 1984 Games. There, partnered with Torvill, he performed an unforgettable routine that has since gone down in history. It earned them a series of perfect scores, becoming arguably one of the biggest moments in British sporting history. The two would add four European titles and World Champion titles to that haul.

Not just that, they were inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1989. Their credibility and achievements culminated in an even bigger honor, as Dean was knighted and Torvill received a damehood in 2026.

After retiring, Dean turned to choreography and television, regularly serving as a judge on the ITV show Dancing on Ice. In fact, Torvill joined him on the show, and the two were a big reason the series thrived. However, Dancing on Ice breathed its last in 2025 with its seventeenth and final season, followed by a farewell tour that concluded in July 2025.

Walking away from the ice wasn’t a decision Dean took lightly after spending most of his life in skates. But once the farewell tour ended, the Olympic champion admitted he knew it was finally time to step away.

Dean and Torvill reflect on hanging up their skates

He may have retired professionally following the 1994 Winter Olympics, but Christopher Dean didn’t quite hang up his skates until last year after the show’s farewell tour. It all culminated in their hometown of Nottingham in July 2025, marking the last time the two would be figure skaters. And for the ice-dancing pair, the magnitude of the moment certainly got to them.

“It was a mixture of emotions, but we were so happy to have been able to do that tour, and you always want to give a good performance, and we felt that that show as a whole was one of the best performances,” Torvill told News.stv.

Dean added, “And we prepared ourselves for that. To put a tour like that together takes about a year and a half, and so that preparation is always in the back of your mind that this is the final performance.”

What Torvill and Dean missed most was watching audiences fall in love with figure skating through the show. Additionally, Torvill adored contestants who retained their talents after Dancing on Ice, as most celebrities give up skating upon leaving the show. What makes her day is when an occasional one says they’re still skating, like Sam Aston and a handful of others.

“A lot of people say, ‘won’t you miss it?’, but we feel like we’ve achieved what we’ve achieved, and we don’t need to do any more. The body doesn’t want to do any more. And so, for us to be able to do that in a style that we felt was fitting for us, it was great,” Dean added.

Whether the jungle comes calling or not, Dean’s days on ice appear firmly behind him. But retirement clearly hasn’t stopped television from finding new roles for the Olympic legend.