The three-time United States national champion, 1983 World Champion and 1984 Olympic Winter Games silver medalist was born in California (which might explain for her long blonde hair!!!) on April 20, 1964, but grew up near Seattle, Washington. She started taking figure skating lessons at age seven at a rink in nearby Edmonds, Washington, and one thing led to another. Before anyone knew it, Roz showed promise and talent to be a champion.
But to be a champion, you had to train with the best. For Roz, her parents hired Lorraine Borman, a well-known coach who, for the next 12 years of sacrifice, would work Roz hard while making it fun on the ice. As Roz mentioned in an interview not too long ago, she would have Lorraine push her harder in training and in practice.
In 1979, Roz made her first appearance in national competition, winning the U.S. Novice Championship. That followed with wins at the World Junior Championship, the National Sports Festival Championship and the U.S. Olympic Festival Championship. And in 1982, Roz became famous for knocking off the previous national champ, Elaine Zayak. At that time, it was an unwritten rule for anyone to beat the national champ which was unheard of both logically and politically. And in spite of a muscle pull in her hip (her ONLY serious injury in 28 years of skating), skated well enough to pull off the upset.
It seemed that destiny had painted a perfect picture for Roz.....complete with a gold medal in the 1984 Games in Sarejevo, Yugoslavia. And after winning the U.S. title in January of that year, the stage was set for her coronation in Europe.
In one instant during the week of competition for the women, Katerina Witt of East Germany grabbed the lead after the early rounds....and never relinquished the lead. Although Roz skated a brilliant free skate performance, she came up a tenth of a point shy from winning the gold medal.
Soon after, Roz left the amateur world and turned pro...and also left God behind. She blamed God for letting her down at the last moment....and her decison to leave Him behind would leave her empty spiritually for the next 11 years of her adult life.
After touring with Disney's World On ice for two years, Roz felt unhappy and just burned out on skating and even thought about leaving the ice for good. That is until her Olympic teammate, Scott Hamilton, called her and asked if she would like to join his tour he and his manager, Bob Kain, were putting together. She was hestitant, but agreed to join.
And from that time onward, Roz started to mature and grow as a performer to the audience, quite a change from skating before judges in competition. As one of the mainstays with Discover Card's Stars On ice presented by Smuckers, Roz has never missed a show due to illness or injury. And she remains faithful to her fans and friends while adding that charisma night after night.
Still, Roz struggled with her spiritual side thru the 11 years after her Olympic "failure". But God never gave up on her and in the spring of 1995 an amazing thing happened to Roz. Thru a dinner meeting with a production manager from SOI, she found out that he was a Christian and simply introduced her back to the Lord. Roz, to her surprise, admitted thru her tears that she needed the Lord now more than anytime in her life and rededicated her life to Him.
And even when her schedule is a hectic one like she has had since turning pro, Roz never forgets to call upon Him in her quiet time while on the road.
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