Torvill and Dean launch inaugural Synchro9 World Championships in Nottingham

Nottingham, United Kingdom. British ice dance champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean returned to the rink where they began skating together to help launch the inaugural Synchro9 World Championships.

The competition will be held at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena from March 27 to April 4, ahead of Synchro9’s debut at the Alpes 2030 Olympics.

Return to Nottingham

Motorpoint Arena is where Torvill and Dean teamed up as teenagers and where they performed their final show in July 2025, after skating together for 50 years.

“For us, this is where it all started,” Dean said. “A lot of the skaters will start their Olympic journey out of this competition. People that you will see here next year, you will see at the Olympics.”

New Olympic discipline

Synchro9 features teams of nine skaters, rather than the 16-skater teams used in traditional synchronised skating.

The discipline will also be included in the 2028 Youth Winter Olympics.

The International Skating Union said it hopes the new format of the 70-year-old discipline will attract new audiences through head-to-head knockout rounds and an opponents’ draw similar to a soccer cup competition.

“This is a very unique opportunity for us, similar to one that was enjoyed by rugby when rugby sevens came around, when three on three basketball came around,” said Martyn Hindley, the ISU’s head of corporate communications and public relations. “This is going to be a completely different feel.”

Opportunities for skaters

Dean said the condensed format was expected to create a more dynamic spectacle and provide additional opportunities for female skaters, who have long outnumbered male skaters in the sport.

“There are a lot of lady skaters in the world and fewer men,” he said.

Torvill recalled the gender imbalance during their competitive years, saying: “The minute a guy came along, it was like, grab him.”