|
Profile
Wikipedia, The Free encyclopedia
Debi Thomas, (born March 25, 1967) was a figure skater and the first
African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. She won
the bronze medal at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary in the year
that Katarina Witt won the gold; both skated to the music of Bizet's
Carmen. While a pre-med student at Stanford University, Thomas won
both the 1986 U.S. National and World Figure Skating titles, defeating
Tiffany Chin and Witt respectively, becoming the first and only
African American to hold those titles. She was inducted into the
U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.
After
her figure skating career, Thomas went back to school to become
an orthopedic surgeon. She graduated from Stanford in 1991 with
a degree in engineering and from Northwestern University Medical
School in 1997. Thomas followed this with a surgical residency at
the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital and an orthopedic
surgery residency at the Martin Luther King Jr./Charles Drew University
Medical Center in South Central Los Angeles.
She
still remains involved in the figure skating world as a frequent
committee member and judge.
|