Debi Thomas

2012 Honoree - First black athlete to win an Olympic medal in the Winter Games

Twenty-five years ago, figure skater Debi Thomas captured the world’s attention when she was crowned world champion and U.S. national champion. In 1988 she received a bronze medal for her stunning performance in the Winter Olympics. She became the first and only African American to hold both titles in ladies’ singles figure skating, and was also the first black athlete to win an Olympic medal in the Winter Games.

Not always in the spotlight were Thomas’ off-the-ice pursuits. Throughout her competitive skating career, she studied engineering at Stanford University, and it was during her freshman year at Stanford that she won the U.S. and world championships. A graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, she graduated from the Orthopaedic Residency Program at Charles R. Drew University in Los Angeles in 2005.

Today, Thomas runs her own medical practice in Richlands, Va., miles from the bright lights that once enveloped her. Yet, the "Olympic mentality" that made her a household name is used daily in her orthopaedic surgery practice that she describes as "challenging."

"Health care is getting harder and harder, and it’s harder and harder for patients to make ends meet," Thomas said. "If you are without resources, you can be in a very bad way." Thomas chose Richlands because of her belief that she can make a difference in the small, rural community. Her efforts to help others extend to countries such as Nepal, where she traveled to provide free knee replacement surgeries to indigent women with arthritis.

The granddaughter of a veterinarian, Thomas, 44, said her desire to be a doctor struck at age 5. "I remember making my mother buy me a doctor’s kit," she recalled. As skating became more dominant in her life, Thomas’ mother reminded her that completing her education also was important.

In addition to her outreach work in Nepal, Thomas supports the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and serves on the advisory boards of the U.S. Olympic Sports Medicine Committee and the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame.

"Leadership can be a lonely road but the rewards are worth it," Thomas says.