BRISTOL, Tenn. – Debi Thomas admitted Tuesday that while she’s piled up tons of accomplishments as a figure-skater – including winning the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics and being a 2000 U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame inductee – returning to the ice after years away has been a revelation.
“Oh, yes, it’s been an eye-opener coming back,” Thomas said Tuesday, laughing as she stood inside the Johnson Controls Ice Rink at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“When you’re away from it for a while, you tend to forget that skating is actually really hard,” Thomas said. “It’s just that competitive skaters make it look so easy. But it’s still great to be back on the ice, even if I’m sore all over. It’s been kind of neat.”
Thomas was at the rink Tuesday afternoon for a final practice session before she heads to Atlantic City, N.J., for a Saturday ice-skating show starring a number of figure-skating legends that will air Christmas Day on NBC. It’ll mark the first time Thomas has skated before an audience in 14 years, and that was a performance she carried out while pregnant with her now-13-year-old son, Luc.
“It’ll be the first time my son has a chance to see his mother actually skate,” said Thomas, a past two-time U.S. champion and 1988 world title-holder. “So if I didn’t already have enough motivation to skate well [Saturday], just as an athlete with a lot of pride, I have even more incentive.”
Thomas definitely has a good excuse for not devoting much time to skating in recent years: Since 2005, she has been a practicing orthopedic surgeon. She specializes in hip and knee surgery and has worked at medical centers in Los Angeles, Urbana, Ill., and Terre Haute, Ind.
Beginning Dec. 15, Thomas will open a private practice at Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands, Va., a career move that the Los Angeles native said perfectly fits why she decided to pursue medicine years ago while attending Stanford University.
‘I’ve always wanted to be able to have real connections with patients, where you can view them as actual people instead of just patient numbers,” said Thomas, whose expertise in knee and hip medicine has already been called upon by Richlands High School’s football team.
“So the chance to practice medicine in a smaller town, where you can really make a difference, has always appealed to me,” she said. “I’m really excited about being a physician in this community.”
On Tuesday, it was Thomas’ old skating moves that she focused on sharpening to surgical precision, in preparation for Saturday’s glitzy return to the ice.
“I’ve been dealing with a pulled groin, which is no fun,” said Thomas, who was the first African-American to win an Olympic figure-skating medal. “But I’ll be ready to skate well, believe me. Even if it’s probably the last time I’ll skate, I’m not going out there to just glide around for a few minutes.”
Then, with a chuckle, Thomas added: “Maybe it’s the former Olympian in me, and that old Olympic pride coming out. But once I hit that ice, I’m going all out. There’s no other way to do it.”
rbrown@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512
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