Rosalynn Diane Sumners (born April 20, 1964) is an American former competitive figure skater. She was the World Junior champion in 1980, the U.S. National champion in 1982, 1983 and 1984, World champion in 1983, and won a silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics (second to Katarina Witt).
Early career
Sumners was born in Palo Alto, California and raised in Edmonds, Washington. Sumners considers Edmonds her hometown and is where she learned to skate. Edmonds renamed its 5th Avenue to "Rosalynn Sumners Boulevard" after her winning the silver medal in the 1984 Olympics.
Sumners was a hard-working, dedicated skater. Her coach, Lorraine Borman, called the "Wizard of Roz", emphasized her student's artistry as her skating strength. Sumners balanced athleticism and artistry, giving her a competitive edge. Sumners first emerged on the skating scene after winning the 1980 World Junior title. Her artistic style throughout 1980-1981 usually placed her 1st or 2nd in the free skating round of competitions while scoring lower in the compulsory figures at this stage of her career. She failed to make the U.S World team or win any medals.
In the 1981-1982 season, though still weak in figures, Sumners was successful. She won a silver medal in a stacked field at Skate Canada (winning the free skate and combined free skate, but being 8th in figures), and later won an upset U.S title over defending Champion Elaine Zayak, rising star Vikki De Vries, and veteran Priscilla Hill, climbing from 5th place after the figures by winning the short and long programs. At the World Figure Skating Championships, Rosalynn scaled down her technical content due to injury, attempting only one triple over the two free skating phases, but delivered strong short and long programs, placing 4th (behind Witt, Leistner, Vodezorova) in the short, 5th in the long (behind Zayak, Witt, Leistner, Kristofics Binder), and 4th in combined free skating (behind Witt, Leistner, Zayak), taking 6th place overall at her first Worlds, despite a low 11th in the compulsory figures.
1982 - 1984
In 1982-1983, Sumners showed improvement in compulsory figures. She won Skate America, defeating strong competitors including Claudia Leistner and Kristina Wegelius. She took the bronze at Skate Canada, that was won by Vikki De Vries, after several falls in the long program. She won silver behind Katarina Witt at NHK, after a pair of lackluster performances. By U.S Nationals though, Rosalynn was at her best, her jumps showing improved fitness and power, easily defending her title over reigning World Champion and 1981 U.S Champion Elaine Zayak, winning all three phases (compulsory figure, short program, long program). Especially impressive was her short program, delivering a clean performance including a triple jump combination for the only time of her career in the short, earning mostly 5.9s on both technical and artistic marks. At the World Championships that year she came in as one of the favorites, winning her first and only World title. She won the figures and 4th in the short due a missed triple jump combination she had previously executed well at Nationals, then winning the long program. Her main rivals were Elaine Zayak, who withdrew with injury after 11th place in figures, and Katarina Witt who finished 4th overall after placing 8th place in figures, despite a 1st place in the short, and 2nd to Rosalynn (on a 5-4 split) in the final long program.