WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Torvill and Dean Just Keep on Going

Under the heading of broken marriages, it has not created the same furor as those of Diana and Charles and Fergie and Andy. But there was enough speculation in the English press that Christopher Dean felt compelled to call a news conference last week to answer questions about whether his union with Isabelle Duchesnay is on thin ice. It is.

Torvill and Dean, however, seem forever.

Perhaps the crucial element in the enduring relationship between Dean and Jayne Torvill is that they have left romance out of it. Almost a decade after they won the gold medal in the 1984 Winter Olympic ice-dancing competition, receiving perfect scores of 6.0 for all nine judges for their artistic impression of Ravel’s “Bolero,” T&D;, as they are known by their adoring British public, have more rapport than ever on the ice.

And, although it hardly seems possible, they also are skating better than ever, which is one reason they have decided to at least temporarily abandon the road after their current tour, which concludes with appearances on June 22 at the Forum and June 23 at the Anaheim Arena, and return to serious competition. They no doubt will be favored to win another gold medal next February in the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway.

“We’re going back to something we did before, but it’s a new challenge after nine years of touring,” Torvill said. “We feel we can do a better job this time from all the experiences we’ve had. We’ve grown.”

Their performance on the current tour is getting mixed reviews. Skated to a Phil Collins drum solo, it has been called everything from “kinda weird” to “brilliantly innovative.”

Bolero, it’s not.

“It’s a very step-oriented piece,” Dean said. “The steps are very fast and intricate. We have to be together. It’s different from anything we’ve ever done before. I think audiences would be disappointed if we weren’t doing something unique.”

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After the triumph of T&D; in 1984, Dean became the choreographer for the innovative French brother-sister dance team of Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay. That led to a romance and eventually marriage.

But with his return to competition, Dean could not supervise Isabelle’s fledgling professional career. That, he said, was a factor in the deterioration of their personal relationship. “Things sometimes die,” he said.

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Soccer is the sport of the future in the United States and always will be, the sport’s critics contend. Perhaps they ultimately will be proven right. But, for at least one day, the future appeared closer.

In Chicago, on the same day that Michael Jordan and his Bulls would meet Phoenix in Game 3 of the NBA championship series, 53,549 went to Soldier Field to see the United States meet world champion Germany.

Who says there is never enough scoring in soccer games?

Soccer’s promoters could not have asked for a more action-packed debut for their sport on live, network television in the United States than Germany’s 4-3 victory over the United States.

Another 54,118 did not see so many goals in Brazil’s 1-1 tie with England at Washington’s RFK Stadium. But they did see a Brazilian team that was relentless in its attack against an English team that defended as if it had its back to the edge of a very deep abyss.

English supporters swayed to soccer songs throughout the game, only to find themselves matched in volume and surpassed in rhythm by the drums of an equal number of Brazil’s supporters. If the play on the field was not quite up to World Cup level, the atmosphere was.

Also on Sunday, organizers of next year’s World Cup in the United States announced that remaining tickets for next year’s games at Chicago and Washington were sold out within four hours of being made available Saturday.

A lot of people laughed when the chairman of the organizing committee, L.A. lawyer Alan Rothenberg, predicted that tickets for all 52 games next year will sell out. Now, it appears likely.

The critics have not been silenced. They say that the World Cup will have no more impact on the sport’s future in the United States than did the soccer tournament during the 1984 Summer Olympics, when hundreds of thousands of spectators made soccer the Games’ most highly-attended sport.

But it was the success of that tournament that convinced international soccer officials that the United States was capable of playing host to the World Cup, and it is the World Cup, they hope, that will accelerate the sport’s acceptance in its last frontier. They do not expect results overnight.

“We’re trying to leave footsteps in the United States,” one official said last week. “The World Cup is the first step.”

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London Bridge is long gone, Buckingham Palace is open to tourists, the World Cup of soccer is going to be played in the colonies. If you are wondering what is coming next to unloosen the crust from the British traditionalists, you don’t have to wait long.

Although they invented the concept of amateurism a couple of centuries ago, and have championed it ever since, the British might soon join the trend toward paying their Olympians. The Foundation for Sports and the Arts (FSA) is expected to approve a proposal that would provide between $30,000 and $40,000 to 100 athletes who are considered medal candidates in the 1996 Summer Games at Atlanta.

FSA members decided to come to the rescue after viewing videotaped interviews with British Olympians.

Wilf O’Reilly, a short-track speedskater, said he was able to train for the 1992 Winter Games only after his local rink gave him a 25% discount. But in order to get it, he was not allowed to start skating before 2 a.m.

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In diving’s recent World Cup, China won all six individual gold medals.

No surprise.

The Chinese have dominated the sport since Greg Louganis retired. The big splash was Canada, which finished third in the women’s team event and fifth in the combined standings, ahead of the United States.

The reason for the Canadians’ improvement? They have imported Chinese coaches.

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Great Britain’s Liz McColgan says she is ready to return to her form of 1991, when she won the world championship in the 10,000 meters.

After finishing fifth in that event in the 1992 Summer Olympics, McColgan fired her coach. That could have caused problems at home because he also is her husband, but, fortunately, she says, he got over it.

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After her most recent operation, this one on her left heel two weeks ago, Mary Slaney withdrew from this week’s U.S. championships at Eugene, Ore.

But she says she’ll be back to run the 10,000 in 1996 at Atlanta. “There’s no doubt about the desire,” she says.

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Editors of Frank, a Canadian satirical magazine, revealed they have fooled the country’s postal system by mailing letters with fake stamps.

One depicting Ben Johnson accepting his gold medal in 1988 at Seoul is labeled “Freestyle doping.”

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“You’ve got to use your head and concentrate at all times,” the coach tells his young student. “This isn’t cheerleading camp, this is skating. You’ve got to concentrate.

“Really think now, or we’re going to be here ‘til Christmas learning this. Really concentrate!”

Who is this Marine drill instructor of a coach? Could it really be. . . . Christopher Bowman?

Indeed, figure skating’s bad boy, the self-described “Hans Brinker from Hell,” who actually is from Van Nuys, is coaching this summer at rinks in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Skater, heal thyself. One thing Bowman’s former coaches all agree upon is that he could have been one of the most decorated skaters ever if he had ever been able to “really concentrate.”

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U.S. speedskater Dan Jansen’s wife, Robin, gave birth last month to a girl. They named her Jane Danielle Jansen after Dan’s sister, who died of cancer during the 1988 Winter Olympics. . . . “Serious Fun,” a book by UC San Diego Russian history professor Robert Edelman about the history of sports in the former Soviet Union, has been published.