Where Is Debi Thomas Now? Bio: Figure Skating, Husbands, Net ...

• Debi Thomas is a retired professional figure skater and physician, best known for being a two-time US national champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist. • Her net worth is estimated at $20,000, with her wealth being limited by divorces and work in poverty-stricken areas as a physician. • She started learning figure skating at the age of 5 and entered her first competition at 9, eventually becoming the US National and World Champion in 1986. • She later studied pre-med at Stanford University and graduated from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1997. • She is now engaged to Jamie Loonie and has two children with him, and previously had a son with her ex-husband Chris Bequette.



Known for movies

The 8th Annual Black Achievement Awards (1987)as Herself

The Official 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics Video (1988)as Herself / American Figure Skater Bronze Medalist

Bud Greenspan's Favorite Stories of Winter Olympic Glory (2002)as Herself

Nutcracker on Ice (2009)as Snow Queen

Short Info

Date Of Birth	March 25, 1967
Fact	Inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.



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Contents

Who is Debi Thomas?

Debi Thomas was born on 25 March 1967, in Poughkeepsie, New York State USA, and was a professional figure skater before becoming a physician. She is best known from being a two time US national champion, and the 1988 Olympic bronze medalist in figure skating.

Hanging at the pool solving the world's problems with the real life Rudy Ruettiger, whose story was the inspiration for…

Posted by Debi Thomas on Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Wealth of Debi Thomas

How rich is Debi Thomas? As of mid-2018, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $20,000, earned mostly through success in professional figure skating, and from her work as a physician, however, divorces and working in relatively poverty-stricken areas as a physician have limited the size of her bank account. Still, as she continues her endeavors, it is expected that her wealth will increase somewhat.

Takin selfies with friends and new friends at #WOFLovedTour pic.twitter.com/kMCdLTxlUt

— Debi Thomas (@Orthodeb) October 10, 2015

Early Life and Skating Beginnings

Though Debi was born in New York, her family moved to San Jose, California where she grew-up. 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. At the age of 5, she started to learn skating, and entered her first figure skating competition four years later, actually  winning, and so deciding to pursue competitive skating. 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. A year later she was introduced to skating coach Alex McGowan, leading her to represent the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club in 1983. She would participate in numerous amateur competitions until the age of 21.

Posted by Debi Thomas on Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Rise in Professional Figure Skating

In 1986, Thomas won the US National and World Championships, culminating in her being awarded Athlete of the Year from Wide World of Sports, the first female athlete to win while still attending college full-time, since Tenley Albright during the 1950s. She was also the first African-American to hold the US National title in ladies’ single figure skating. During this time, she was studying a pre-med course at Stanford University, and it was considered unusual for a competitive figure skater to attend college at the same time because of the combined work load. Later in the year, she was given the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Candace Award for Trailblazing. The following year her advancement in the sport was hampered, as she battled with Achilles tendinitis in both ankles, leading her to struggle at the US Nationals.

She would bounce back at the World Championships, and finished in second place behind Katarina Witt. She then moved to Boulder, Colorado to help her prepare for the Olympics, leading her to win the US National title the following year. During the 1988 Winter Olympics, she once again fought with Katarina Witt in what was dubbed as the “Battle of the Carmens” in which both skaters had the same music – “Carmen” from the Georges Bizet opera. However, during the competition, some mistakes saw her finish with the bronze medal.

A close up of my four biggest skating accomplishments… Olympic Bronze, Two U.S. National Championship Golds, and a…

Posted by Debi Thomas on Saturday, March 27, 2010

Achievements and Medical Career

Debi became the first black athlete to win any medal at the Winter Olympics, and she then won the World Professional Championships, and again two years after that. 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 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. Afterwards, she took up a surgical residency at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital, leading to an orthopedic surgery residency in South Central Los Angeles, becoming a specialist in hip and knee replacement as an orthopedic surgeon. However, due to difficulty working with other doctors, she never stayed longer than a year in a clinic. This led her to establish her own private practice in Richlands, Virginia which later closed due to her lack of business experience, especially in a relatively impoverished area.

Personal Life

For her personal life, it is known that Thomas married Brian Vander Hogen in 1988 but their marriage ended in divorce. She later married Chris Bequette, a sports attorney in 1996, and they had a son before divorcing. She is now engaged to Jamie Loonie and they have two children together, residing in southwest Virginia. In 2015, it was reported that she had gone broke due to two divorces and a failed medical practice. She also lost custody of her son due to poor living conditions. She later appeared in an episode of “Iyania: Fix My Life”.

General Info

Full Name	Debi Thomas
Date Of Birth	March 25, 1967
Height	1.67 m
Profession	Surgeon
Education	Northwestern University, Stanford University, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Nationality	American

Family

Children	Luc Bequette
Parents	McKinley Thomas, Janice Thomas
Siblings	Richard Taylor

Social profile links

Facebook	https://www.facebook.com/Debi-Thomas-81725206663/
Twitter	https://twitter.com/orthodeb?lang=en
Instagram	https://www.instagram.com/thomasdebi/?hl=en
IMDB	https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1317172/

Facts

#	Fact
1	Inducted into the San Jose [California] Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
2	Inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.
3	Has one son.
4	Was for many years an orthopedic surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas. According to a February 2016 online article in The Washington Post, she had declared bankruptcy, let her medical license expire, and was living with her fiancé in a trailer in rural southern Virginia (see Miscellaneous links).
5	Graduated from Northwestern Medical School (1997)
6	Graduated from Stanford University with a degree in engineering
7	On the cover of Time magazine (February 15, 1988)
8	The first African-American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics (1988). The first black skater to win a U.S. Figure Skating and a World Figure Skating Championship (1986).

Movies

Actress

Title	Year	Status	Character
Nutcracker on Ice	2009	TV Movie	Snow Queen

Self

Title	Year	Status	Character
Good Morning America	2015	TV Series	Herself - Guest
The Insider	2015	TV Series	Herself
Bud Greenspan's Favorite Stories of Winter Olympic Glory	2002	TV Movie documentary	Herself
VH-1 Where Are They Now?	1999	TV Series documentary	Herself
American Gladiators	1995	TV Series	Contestant
The Official 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics Video	1988	Video documentary	Herself / American Figure Skater Bronze Medalist
The 8th Annual Black Achievement Awards	1987	TV Special	Herself
Ebony/Jet Showcase	1985	TV Series	Herself

Archive Footage

Title	Year	Status	Character
Inside Edition	2015	TV Series documentary	Herself
Entertainment Tonight	2015	TV Series	Herself
Biography	2004	TV Series documentary	Herself
Life and Times	2002	TV Series documentary	Herself

Awards

Won Awards

Year	Award	Ceremony	Nomination	Movie
1988	Blimp Award	Kids' Choice Awards, USA	Favorite Female Athlete

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia

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