Her coach, Lorraine Borman, called the "Wizard of Roz", emphasized her student's artistry as her skating strength.

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.

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.

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.

She won her third straight U.S. title, but only after technical problems in both the short and long programs left her in 2nd place in both phases to rising star Tiffany Chin.

She went into the Olympics as a narrow favorite for the gold medal in an open field with Katarina Witt, Elaine Zayak, reigning World silver medalist Claudia Leistner, Tiffany Chin, and reigning World bronze medalist Elena Vodorezova, who were considered strong contenders.

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 left room for Sumners to win with a great performance.

[4] 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.

They were discovered twenty years later as unclaimed property in a safe deposit box and returned to Sumners (with a mock "awards" ceremony) by the state of Washington in 2004.