JAYNE TORVILL and Christopher Dean skated their way to the top of the new year’s honours list, more than 41 years after they won Olympic gold.

They were made a dame and a knight respectively after quitting dancing on ice earlier this year.

The Olympians were among many sporting heroes honoured in the annual Establishment gong-fest. Five members of the Euro-winning women’s football team are also to be bemedalled.

Captain Leah Williamson is to be a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) while Alex Greenwood, Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone, who were all part of the side that beat Spain in the final in July, become MBEs.

And the team’s Dutch manager Sarina Wiegman is awarded an honorary damehood. 

“When I first arrived in England, I could never have imagined the respect and warmth I’ve experienced from the English people. I deeply thank the fans for their support,” she said.

Sports broadcasters Gabby Logan and Clive Tyldesley become OBEs, as does longtime holder of the world record for the women’s marathon, Paula Radcliffe.

Other athletes to be honoured include members of England Women’s Rugby World Cup winning squad Marlie Packer and Zoe Aldcroft, who get OBEs, while Ellie Kildunne, Sadia Kabeya, and Megan Jones are made MBEs.

Recently sacked chairman of Spurs Daniel Levy, whose dismissal followed the club’s first trophy win in 17 years, is honoured. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England until its recent abolition by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, also becomes a consolation dame.

Actor Idris Elba, known for his roles in The Wire and Luther, is knighted for services to young people, having founded the Elba Hope Foundation, which supports community empowerment and youth advocacy.

Sir Idris said: “I hope we can do more to draw attention to the importance of sustained, practical support for young people and to the responsibility we all share to help them find an alternative to violence.”

Two Labour worthies will take the knee before the King to be knighted — former international development secretary Anneliese Dodds, who quit her role in protest at Sir Keir Starmer’s overseas aid cuts, and ex-MP on the right of the party Tristram Hunt, now director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

D-Day veteran Mervyn Kersh, 101, is awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to Holocaust remembrance and education, but he is not the oldest name on the list — 102-year old John Hearn gets a BEM for services to judo.

And a woman thought to be the oldest victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, Betty Brown from Consett in Co Durham, has been made an OBE for her campaigning for justice for the persecuted subpostmasters.

“I think of all the subpostmasters, all the 900, the 13 that committed suicide,” Ms Brown said.

“It’s on behalf of them and what they have gone through and what I’ve gone through, and I feel everything that they feel,” she added.