>   FIGURE SKATING: Debi Thomas   >   CEG263629022_Debi_Thomas.jpg

Figure Skating - 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics - Women's Singles The USA's bronze medal winner Debi Thomas during the final free program at the Olympic Saddledome, Canada. 27/02/1988 The two clear favorites for the gold medal were Thomas and East Germany's Katarina Witt. Both skated their long programs to the music of Bizet's opera Carmen, the media consequently dubbing the showdown 'The Battle of the Carmens'. Thomas was leading going into the final free program but performed disappointingly to finish third, while Witt took the gold. In 1986 Thomas had been the first female skater to win a US National title and World Championship while attending college full time since Tenley Albright in the 1950s. Her bronze medal in Calgary meant she was the first African-American athlete in history to win a Winter Olympic medal. After retiring from the ice she became an orthopedic surgeon. Media attention was focussed on her again in late 2015 when it transpired that her medical license had expi