USA's first female black ice skating champion: Who is Debi Thomas?

“Usually, if I do one thing wrong, then other things go wrong too…”

This sentence, which she made about her performance at the 1988 World Championship in Budapest, months after appearing on the cover of Time magazine, also gave clues about the course of Debi Thomas' life.

As the first athlete of her generation to combine college and professional skating, Thomas carried the weight of the firsts she achieved throughout her life on her shoulders. Combining her successful education life with her childhood passion, the ice rink, was just one of the perfect decisions she made in those years.

Debra Janine Thomas (born March 25, 1967) is an American former figure skater and physician. She is the 1986 World champion, the 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, and a two-time U.S. national champion. Her rivalry with East Germany's Katarina Witt at the 1988 Calgary Olympics was known as the Battle of the Carmens.

In 1986, shortly after becoming the first black female ice skating champion in the USA, she carried this success to the world. In the same year, Thomas would achieve victory at the World Championships by pushing Katarina Witt, the winner of the last two years, to second place, and her opponent would refer to her as "The only person who can really beat me."

Their rivalry with Katarina Witt lasted three years. Their encounter at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary was dubbed the 'Battle of the Carmens'. The reason for this was that both athletes took to the track with Georges Bizet's opera Carmen in the long program. In the last two championships, athletes competing for East Germany and the USA had an embargo on gold and silver medals. There was no doubt that one of the sides would win the gold medal in the match in Calgary. However, this 'war' did not result in a gold-silver double. A few simple mistakes made by Debi Thomas led to her finding herself on the bronze medal podium.

Stating that she did not want ice skating to control her life, Thomas continued her education without interruption alongside her professional career. She first graduated from Stanford University in 1991 with a general engineering degree and then from Northwestern University in 1997 with a medical degree. She continued her medical career, where she specialized in orthopedic surgery, seeking perfection on the ice.

Thomas, who had two unsuccessful marriages, emphasized the Olympic mentality in every step she took and always believed that she could do better. Wherever she worked, She sought the same respect she had once received on the ice, but it wasn't easy. Her sharp character, which did not allow her to get along well with the doctors she worked with, caused her to find herself in a different clinic every year.

Debi Thomas, who was diagnosed with bipolar in 2012, was offered to participate in the 'worn out doctor' program, but she could not meet this request. As a result, her license was suspended. Debi could not even pay her rent. She decided to move into the trailer where her fiancée lived, declared bankruptcy, and allowed her medical license to be revoked.

Figure skating Hall of Fame member Debi Thomas is now an orthopedic surgeon who doesn't even have health insurance. Since 2012, she has been living with her fiancé Jamie Looney, an unemployed mine worker. The best black figure skater in history, perhaps for the first time in her life, does not carry the burden of being 'the first black person to do something' on her shoulders. She says only one thing to those who are saddened by her tragic story: "At least I'm free now."