Thirty-nine years ago today, on February 8, 1986, a new chapter in figure skating history was written as 18-year-old Debi Thomas claimed the Senior Ladies’ Singles title at the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in Uniondale, New York.
With her commanding performance, Thomas became the first African-American woman to win a U.S. national championship in the sport, breaking a major color barrier in a competition traditionally dominated by white athletes.
Thomas, known for her powerful and athletic style, won the competition by placing first in both the compulsory figures and the long program segments. Her victory in 1986 was a stunning upset and a dramatic leap from her second-place finish in 1985. The win instantly propelled her to the forefront of international figure skating.
Just a month after her national victory, Thomas went on to defeat East Germany’s reigning Olympic champion, Katarina Witt, to capture the 1986 World Championship title, making her the first African-American World Figure Skating Champion as well.
What made her achievement even more remarkable was that Thomas accomplished this feat while simultaneously pursuing her academic goals as a pre-med student at Stanford University. This dual commitment to elite sport and a rigorous education set her apart from nearly all her competitors.
Thomas would later become a two-time U.S. National Champion (1986 and 1988) and a 1988 Olympic bronze medalist at the Calgary Winter Games, famously engaging in the media-dubbed “Battle of the Carmens” rivalry with Witt. After retiring from amateur skating, she fulfilled her lifelong dream by graduating from Stanford in 1991 and from Northwestern University Medical School in 1997, going on to practice as an orthopedic surgeon.
Thomas’s 1986 victory remains a landmark moment, inspiring generations of athletes of color and redefining what was possible in the world of figure skating.
