Debi Thomas

Debi Thomas
Full name	Debra Janine Thomas
nation	United States
birthday	March 25, 1967
place of birth	Poughkeepsie, New York
size	167 cm
Weight	53 kg
Career
society	LAFSC, Los Angeles
Trainer	Alex McGowan
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 0 × 1 × World Cup medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics bronze Calgary 1988 Ladies  World figure skating championships gold Geneva 1986 Ladies silver Cincinnati 1987 Ladies bronze Budapest 1988 Ladies

Debra Janine "Debi" Thomas (born March 25, 1967 in Poughkeepsie , New York ) is a former US figure skater who started in a single run . She is the world champion of 1986 .

Thomas ran for the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club from 1983 and was trained by Alex McGowan . She was the first dark-skinned figure skater to make it to the top of the world. In 1985 she was second at the national championships behind Tiffany Chin and played her first world championship in Tokyo , where she promptly finished fifth. Just one year later, she became US champion and world champion in Geneva ahead of Katarina Witt . At that time she was still studying full-time, like her compatriot Tenley Albright when she won the world championship in the 1950s. In 1987 Thomas struggled with tendinitis in both ankles. At the national championships, however, it was enough for second place behind Jill Trenary and at the world championships in Cincinnati for second place behind Witt. In 1988 she won the national championships and so went to the Olympic Games in Calgary . There the public awaited the battle for gold between Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas, under the headline “Battle of the Carmens”, because both had chosen Bizet's Carmen for the freestyle . Thomas showed strong performances in the compulsory as well as in the short program and went best in the freestyle. This failed, however, and so it was only enough to bronze behind Witt and the Canadian Elizabeth Manley . This result was repeated a little later at the World Championships in Budapest . After that, Thomas ended her amateur career.

Thomas resumed her medical studies after her competitive career and only ran briefly with the professionals to finance her studies. She graduated from Stanford in 1991 and from Northwestern Medical School in 1997 . She works as an orthopedic surgeon.

In 1988 Thomas married fellow student Brian Hogen. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1996 she married the former football player Chris Bequette, and their son was born a year later.

In 2010 she left her husband and son and opened an orthopedic practice in Richlands . In 2014, Thomas filed for personal bankruptcy and her license to practice as a doctor expired. She lived in a trailer with her fiancé at Richlands' home in 2016, according to the Washington Post.

Results

Competition / year	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988
winter Olympics						3.
World championships			5.	1.	2.	3.
American championships	13.	6th	2.	1.	2.	1.

Web links

• Debi Thomas in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Terrence McCoy: The best African American figure skater in history is now bankrupt and living in a trailer. In: The Washington Post , February 26, 2016.
2. ↑ Melanie Haack: Katarina Witt's great rival now lives in a trailer. In: Die Welt , February 29, 2016.