Featured Biography
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SKATING
by John Malone

THOMAS, DEBI (b. 1967): U.S. and World Champion

Flashing into the spotlight at 17, Debi Thomas became U.S. Silver Medallist in 1985, nearly upsetting Champion Tiffany Chin, and went on to take 5th place that year at her first World Championships. A powerful skater whose jumps were higher than those of any woman before her, Thomas clearly had the makings of a champion. But at first the attention was as much focused on the fact that she was African-American as it was on her skating. Like all winter sports, figure skating had seen very few black competitors. Bobby Beauchamp had made his mark at the junior level, including a 2nd-place finish at the World Junior Championships in 1979, but he then turned professional without competing at the senior level. Debi Thomas was thus cheered for breaking down what had seemed a color barrier. The fact that she was an A student was also noted.

But Thomas quickly saw to it that the main focus became her skating, winning the U.S. Championship in 1986 and taking the World title away from East Germany's two-time winner Katarina Witt at Geneva, Switzerland that year. Witt could not match Thomas' technical prowess and had to depend on her artistic ability, although Thomas did have a definite flair for musical interpretation. The next year, however, Thomas, now in her second year of college and with a heavy pre-med schedule, lost her U.S. title to Jill Trenary. Then Witt took back the World crown, although Thomas did win the Silver Medal as Trenary, faltering badly, ending in 7th place. U. S. Bronze Medalist Caryn Cadavy took the World Bronze.

The 1988 Olympics would bring the much-hyped confrontation between the two Brians, Boitano of the United States and Orser of Canada. However, much media attention was also focused on the upcoming battle between Witt and Thomas, especially when it turned out that both skaters had chosen to skate their long programs to selections from the opera Carmen. Although Carmen was a perennial favorite among women skaters and both women seemed suited to the music, if in somewhat different ways, the pre-Olympic speculation was that the situation favored Witt because of her artistic abilities.

Thomas started off the 1988 competitive year superbly, with a brilliant clear-cut victory over Trenary at the U.S. Championships. If Thomas skated like that at the Olympics, the prognosticators were now saying, then Witt was in trouble. But Thomas did not skate her short program with her usual flawless authority, and her long program never fully on track after she missed her opening triple toe walley / triple toe loop combination, the most difficult combination performed by any woman in the world and a move she had seemingly perfected. Thomas did not even win the Silver Medal behind Witt, that went to Canadian Champion Elizabeth Manley, who blazed around the Calgary rink before a cheering home-country throng.

Thomas seemed disappointed with her Bronze Medal, but not as much as might have seemed appropriate. She had, in fact, appeared distracted throughout the competition. The reason eventually became clear, when it was revealed that she had secretly married a fellow student just before the Olympics. At the World's, Debi again finished 3rd behind Witt and Manley. She then turned professional and gave some brilliant performances, winning the World Professional title with her old flair. She also continued right along with her college education. Although she did not go as far as Rosalyn Sumners once had and say that she was glad not to have won the Olympic Gold Medal because of the pressures that victory brought with it, Thomas seemed perfectly content with what she had accomplished with her skating and was chiefly interested in her future as a physician-which she had always maintained was her priority in life.