Up for auction a RARE! "Olympic Silver Medalist" Rosalynn Sumners Hand Signed 3X5 Card. This item is
certified authentic by JG Autographs and comes with their Certificate of
Authenticity.
ES-4704E
Rosalynn
Diane Sumners (born April 20,
1964) is an American singles 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). In
1982-1983 big things were expected of Sumners, and she had shown great
improvement in her weakness of compulsory figures. She won Skate America,
defeating strong competitors including Claudia Leistner and Kristina Wegelius. Expected to win again she finished a
disappointing bronze at Skate Canada, won by teammate Vikki De Vries, after
several bad falls in the long program. She then settled for silver behind Katarina Witt at NHK, after a pair of lackluster
performances. By U.S Nationals though Rosalynn was at her best, showing
improved fitness and power in her jumps, easily defending her title over
reigning World Champion and 1981 U.S Champion Elaine Zayak, winning all 3
phases (compulsory figure, short program, long program). Especially impressive
was her short program where she did 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, and did not disappoint, winning her first and only
World title. She won the figures, settled for 4th in the short due a miss on
her triple jump combination she had done so well at Nationals, then winning the
long program. Her main rivals were believed to be Elaine Zayak who withdrew
with injury after 11th place in figures, and Katarina Witt who finished 4th
overall after only an 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. In the 1983-1984
Sumners often struggled, and generally seemed to be technically off compared to
her stellar 1982-1983 season. She even suffered a humiliating loss (while sick)
to little known Yugoslav skater Sanda Dubravčić in
one international event. She won her 3rd straight U.S title, but only after
technical problems in both the short and long programs left her 2nd in both
phases to rising star Tiffany Chin. She went
into the Olympics as a shaky and narrow favorite for the gold in an Open field
where Katarina Witt, Elaine Zayak, reigning World silver medalist Claudia
Leistner, Tiffany Chin, and reigning World bronze medalist Elena Vodorezova were also believed to be strong
contenders. The event was so open that the perceived 3rd Soviet skater
behind Anna Kondrashova and
Vodorezova- Kira Ivanova, who had not
skated at a World Championships since 1981 due to a travel ban, and was only
4th at the recent European Championships (without Leistner or Vodorozova), took
the bronze medal. Rosalynn won the compulsory figures but main rival Katarina
Witt who was known to struggle in figures was a distressingly close 3rd.
Looking to win the short program to put Witt out of reach, and after a clean
jump combination, a foot down on the double axel left Sumners only 5th in that
phase, and dropped her to a close 2nd overall going into the long behind
Katarina Witt. Had she won the short program she would have only required a 2nd
place in the long program to win, but now the winner would come out of whomever
won the final long program between her and Witt. Witt delivered a strong,
clean, and charismatic performance, with 3 triples and 3 double axels,
including a very difficult and then rare double lutz-triple toe. She played it
a bit safe too, skating a bit hesitant at times, and leaving out her famed triple
flip. With 5 5.9s, 12 5.8s and 1 5.7 out of 18 marks she had positioned herself
in good shape, but the judges still leaving it open for Sumners to win with a
great performance. Rosalynn would follow with a reasonably strong skate, but a
doubled triple toe and singled double axel in the closing seconds (which left
her only 2 triples and 2 double axels as opposed to Witt's 3 of each, and also
no triple jump combination in the whole performance) likely cost her the gold
medal which she would lose by only 1 tenth of a point on a 5-4 split of the
judges. Had any of the Soviet, West German, or Canadian judges rose her
technical mark by .1 she would have been the winner of the long program and the
gold medal. She received a perfect 6.0 for artistic impression from the Italian
judge, the first 6.0 awarded in the ladies event at the Olympics since 1972.