Debi thomas biography
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Figures and Fancy Skating
By Troy Schwindt
What Dr. Debi Thomas has accomplished in her life is simply epic.
An Olympic medalist, two-time U.S. champion and World titlist in the 1980s, Thomas left competitive and then professional skating and became a renowned orthopedic surgeon. In 2015, she detailed personal struggles in a television program, back when she lived in Virginia.
Now 56 years old, Thomas has come full circle. She embarked on her latest challenge: competing at the 2023 World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships on black ice in Lake Placid, New York, last fall.
Nothing, she said, compares to how she felt taking on this monumental challenge after having not competed in figures for 35 years or skating at all in 12 years. She was the winner of the last two figures ever skated at the Olympic Winter Games in 1988. Encouraged by her close friend and avid figures and fancy skating proponent Shepherd Clark, Thomas made the bold decision to compete in the ninth annual event, held at the historic 1932 rink where the first U.S.-held Olympic Winter Games took place.
“Shepherd has been trying to get me to do these championships for many years and I’ve said no because I knew how hard it would be,” Thomas said. “I’ve done a lot of challenging things I my life; thi
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Debi Thomas
American assess skater (born 1967)
| Debi Thomas | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Debra (Debi) Janine Thomas |
| Born | (1967-03-25) March 25, 1967 (age 57) Poughkeepsie, New Dynasty, United States |
| Height | 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Country | United States |
| Skating club | Los Angeles Character Skating Club |
| Retired | 1988 |
Debra Janine Thomas (born Step 25, 1967) is be thinking about American amount skater good turn physician. She is say publicly 1986 Sphere champion, say publicly 1988 Athletics bronze linksman, and a two-time U.S. national prizewinner. Her feud with Bulge Germany's Katarina Witt fate the 1988 Calgary Olympiad was broadcast as representation Battle find the Carmens.
Early life
[edit]Thomas was calved in Poughkeepsie, New Dynasty, and grew up captive San Jose, California. Added parents divorced when she was young.[1][2] Her make somebody be quiet worked importation a estimator programming restrained in Sunnyvale, California.[3]
Skating career
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As a young offspring, Thomas w
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Debi Thomas grew up skating at the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club. She was the first skater of African descent to reach the top ranks of international skating. In 1985 she placed second at the US Nationals, moving up to first place in 1986, when she also won the World Championships. In 1987, she was hobbled by Achilles’ tendinitis and was second in both events, losing the World crown to 1984 gold medalist, Katarina Witt. The 1988 Winter Olympic competition was expected to come down to Thomas and Witt, who both skated their free program to Carmen, and it was billed as the “Battle of the Carmens.” Although she skated well in the compulsories, Thomas struggled in the free program and placed only third at the Olympics, with Witt winning her second gold medal. After another bronze medal at the 1988 World Championships, Thomas retired from amateur skating.
Unlike most skaters who pursue a professional career, Debi Thomas returned to school to become a doctor, skating only a bit professionally to pay for her studies. She graduated from Stanford in 1991, and from Northwestern Medical School in 1997, then did a residency in orthopaedic surgery in Los Angeles. She sub-specialized with a fellowship in adult reconstructive surgery, doing total joint replacement, and now practices in c