Rory Flack
| Rory Flack | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Ellen "Rory" Flack |
| Country represented |
 United States
|
| Born |
April 28, 1971 Belleville, Illinois |
| Home town | San Diego, California |
| Residence | United States |
| Former coach |
Roy Balmer Robin Cousins John Nicks Richard Callaghan |
| Skating club | Anchorage Figure Skating Club |
Rory Flack (Flack-Mitchell) (born April 28, 1971) is an African-American professional figure skater. Mrs Flack is the first African American woman to perform a back flip in 1991 on the ice and in 1994 she became the first African American women to win the US Open Professional Figure Skating Championships. She is very well known for her signature Russian splits and is often called the Pros Pro.
Mrs. Rory Flack was born in Belleville, Illinois. She is the daughter of Dorothy Annette Jackson and William Flack, and is the niece of Roberta Flack. Raised in Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California, she later resided for 15 years in Wasilla, Alaska. Married from 1992 to 2008. She has two sons, Rendell Burghart, born 28 September 1993, and Remington Burghart, born 17 January 1997. Rendell plays tennis for Eastern Washington D1 University, where he is majoring in Film. Remington; AKA AkIceGiant, is a Jr. National Pairs Medalist and currently competes at a Jr. World level as figure skating. April 6, 2015 Rory married the love of her life Mr. Roi. Mitchell Sr. in the middle of Mr. Mitchell's favorite intersection in Washington, DC.
Flack began skating at age 5. At age 13, she met the pioneer for African Americans in figure skating, Mabel Fairbanks. Fairbanks inspired Flack to continue skating after wanting to stop at an early age due to racism. Two years later, Debi Thomas, Bobby Beauchamp and Rory Flack skated to three medals at the US National Championships. This was the first time three African Americans competed at the Nationals, and they all earned spots on the international team.
In 1986, Flack won the junior bronze medal at the U.S. Championships. She also competed internationally, winning the silver medal at the 1987 Grand Prix International St. Gervais. Her performance at the 1987 U.S. Championships attracted national attention and earned her an appearance with footage on Saturday Night Live. It was the first time a figure skater was on the show. Two months before the qualifying event for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, she injured her back and could not compete. She retired from competitive skating in the winter of 1991.
...
Wikipedia