Debi thomas biography figure skater
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In 1987, she was hobbled by Achilles’ tendinitis and was second in both events, losing the World crown to 1984 gold medalist, Katarina Witt. She became the only woman to reach the top 22 of the Q score athlete standings, and was later inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
She was also the first African-American to hold the US National title in ladies’ single figure skating. She served on the advisory board of Athletes Against Drugs and the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Advisory Board.
Debi Thomas grew up skating at the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club. Her mother was very supportive of her skating career, and drove over 100 miles a day to help her go to school and to skating practice.
Where is Debi Thomas now? She later captured World Professional Figure Skating titles in 1988, 1989, and 1991, and entertained audiences for four years with the Discover Card "Stars on Ice" show.
She pursued the other half of her dream as she completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at the Martin Luther King, Jr./Charles R.
Drew University Medical Center in Los Angeles. 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. Thomas has worked with the Women's Sports Foundation, and has always helped children's charities.
In 1988, she won the bronze Olympic medal and in 1997 she graduated from Northwestern University Medical School.
When she was 5 years old, Debi Thomas told her mother that she wanted be a doctor and a champion figure skater when she grew up. However, due to difficulty working with other doctors, she never stayed longer than a year in a clinic.
However, her parents divorced when she was young and she mainly stayed with her mother who worked as a computer programming analyst in nearby Sunnyvale. She was one of the first female skaters to ever complete a triple toe-triple toe combination during the 1980s.
In 1989, Thomas continued her medical studies and completed an engineering degree from Stanford two years later, then graduated from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine six years later.
At the time, her skating coach did not encourage her academic studies.
Dr. As a female African-American sports star of the 1980s, Debi won numerous awards. Thomas married sports attorney Chris Bequette in 1996, and in 1997, just weeks after receiving her medical degree, she and her husband welcomed their first child, Christopher Jules Bequette II.
Dr. A year later she was introduced to skating coach Alex McGowan, leading her to represent the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club in 1983. She is now engaged to Jamie Loonie and they have two children together, residing in southwest Virginia.