Rory Flack

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title: "Rory Flack" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-african-american-sportswomen", "20th-century-american-sportswomen", "1971-births", "american-female-single-skaters", "american-figure-skating-coaches", "figure-skating-choreographers", "living-people", "people-from-wasilla,-alaska", "sportspeople-from-belleville,-illinois", "sportspeople-from-phoenix,-arizona", "sportspeople-from-san-diego"] description: "American figure skater" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Flack" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American figure skater ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox figure skater"]

Field	Value
name	Rory Flack
image	Nurnberg Gala 2007 12.jpg
caption	Flack at the 2007 Nurnberg Gala
fullname	Ellen "Rory" Flack
country
birth_date
birth_place	Belleville, Illinois
hometown	San Diego, California
skating club	Color of Ice Academy
retired	1991 (competitive skating)
::

| name = Rory Flack | image = Nurnberg Gala 2007 12.jpg | caption = Flack at the 2007 Nurnberg Gala | fullname = Ellen "Rory" Flack | altname = | country = | birth_date = | birth_place = Belleville, Illinois | hometown = San Diego, California | skating club = Color of Ice Academy | retired = 1991 (competitive skating) Rory Flack (born April 28, 1969) is a professional figure skater and former competitor. She is the first African American woman to perform a back flip on the ice in 1991. In 1994 she became the first African-American woman to win the US Open Professional Figure Skating Championships.

Personal life

Rory Flack was born in Belleville, Illinois. She is the daughter of Dorothy Jackson and William Flack, and is the niece of Roberta Flack. Raised in Phoenix, Arizona, until the age of 10, then until she was 21 in San Diego, California, she later resided for 15 years in Wasilla, Alaska. She was married to 8X Austrian National Champion & 1992 Olympian Ralph Burghart from 1992 to 2007, with whom she has two sons, Rendell Burghart, born September 28, 1993, and Remington Burghart, born January 17, 1997. Rendell played tennis for Eastern Washington University and Graduated on the Deans List majoring in Film. Remington is a 2011 United States National Juvenile Bronze Pairs Medalist. and competed 2017 to COVID-19 Internationally for club ESI-Skating, SkateAustria International Competitive Team.

Flack married Roi Mitchell Sr. on April 6, 2015, in Washington, D.C..

Skating career

Flack began skating at the age of five. When she was 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.

Results

::data[format=table]

International	Event	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88	National
Grand Prix International St. Gervais			2nd
U.S. Championships	3rd J	12th	15th
Pacific Coast Sectionals	1st J
J = Junior level
::

References

References

1. Deliso, Meredith. (February 24, 2025). "Roberta Flack, enduring songstress, dies at the age of 88". [[ABC News (United States).
2. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1702691609968005 Fox5 DC recording
3. Hayes, Marcus. (January 9, 1998). "They're Working Hard To Cut Through Ice Ceiling". Philadelphia Daily News.
4. Elfman, Lois. (July 2, 2009). "Rory Flack-Burghart takes life on the road". [[IceNetwork.com]].
5. Conklin, Mike. (December 10, 1992). "Watch for the movie: Want a sports story with show biz...". [[Chicago Tribune]].
6. Boone, Rick. (April 6, 2015). "Couple gets married in the middle of street of busy DC intersection".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::