Debi Thomas, What Really Happened

By Carol Mitchell

In "Debi Thomas What Really Happened," Mitchell uncovers the truth about Debi’s big losses in the 1988 Olympics up to how her medical career ended up failing in 2014. The author is stunned to learn that Debi Thomas felt she was not meant to win the gold in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. Moreover, Mitchell uncovers extensive research on why Debi, who openly dared to “Question Authority” seemingly at her own peril, incurred many of her losses and how. Mitchell, described as one of the best writers on character building, has given us her best characterizations of Jamie, an unemployed coal miner who is abusive to Debi Thomas. Mitchell, is unwilling to hold anything back, when Jamie Looney aims a gun to the retired skater's head.
Readers will be appalled at how extensively Debi Thomas suffered domestic violence; and, how she was willing to let it all out to the author. Mitchell introduces surprising information about the skating star, while she ensures that it is Debi telling her own story! This earth-shattering book will leave readers on the edge of their seats. Readers will be happy to hear Debi telling her own story throughout this fantastic writing effort.
Carol Denise Mitchell is sensitive and authentic on the topic of what happened to her friend, Olympic champion, Debra Janine Thomas. Her goal is for readers to walk away from the book feeling that it was Debi telling her own story. In a shocking scene when Debi’s fiancé, Jamie Looney puts a gun to Debi’s head, Mitchell is mindful of Debi’s potential state-of-mind in not being able to tell her own story. Mitchell wants the name, Debra Janine Thomas to be inducted into the archives of great fame. Debi Thomas should be proud of this great writing effort. The book will do the superstar, no harm!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carol Mitchell
• Release date: May 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463293195

Carol Mitchell

On June 21, 2023, Carol Denise Mitchell received a Bay Area’s Resilience and Determination (RAD) Hero Award, presented by the Alameda County Community Consumer Advisory Board; the author called this one of the proudest days of her life! On July 13, 2021, the veteran writer became a bestselling author when her coming-of-age story, "Noah, True Love Never Dies," hit #1 on Kindle Unlimited. Ms. Mitchell, who released her latest novel, Unstable, in November 2022, was thrilled when "Noah" and "Ruthless Pamela Jean" posted on the top 100 free Kindle Unlimited books simultaneously. "Ruthless Pamela Jean" also won the Readersfavorite 2022 Honorable Mention book award.“CD Mitchell" was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 12, 1955. One of 16 children, Mitchell, is the daughter of the late Zebbie Thomas Charles, Sr., and Tasceaie Carise Charles.Born during the noteworthy era of the Civil Rights Movement, Mitchell recalled how living in an urban setting in Compton and Watts, California, during an era in American history when growing up in the “Ghetto,” became a motivating influence behind her award-winning writing career. Mitchell witnessed police brutality and disenfranchisement when, during six days of rioting in August 1965, those insurrections and the after-effects of such insurgencies changed her life.Mitchell was encouraged by her mother, a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), who insisted urban ruin was an opportunity for growth. Notwithstanding, Mitchell grew steadily, leaving her imprint on fighting illiteracy and caring for her father, a World War II veteran who could not read or write. Mitchell wrote many notable novels, including the acclaimed book "Your Rights: What Employers Do Not Want You to Know," which remains the worker's go-to reference guide for employees, lawyers, and unions throughout the United States work industry. In 1983, Mitchell chronicled her early life occurrences in a Readersfavorite, award-winning novel, “What Happened to Suzy,” winning nationwide praise for its' message of healing and hope. The book was inducted into the nation’s Library of Congress's Jefferson and Washington Room(s) archives.Mitchell, the winner of Pomona California’s 1973 Miss Congeniality Award, sponsored by JC Penney's, returned to her writing roots in Oakland, California, in November 2022, with the releases of Unstable and Letters to Carol, which both chronicle her struggles with mental health issues and chronic homelessness. In Oakland, California, Mitchell, who worked alongside slain newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey as a news reporter for [Soul Beat], calls the Bay Area home. Mitchell was highlighted in The Oakland Post Newspaper for her groundbreaking work as one of the nation’s most iconic African-American writers. For this, she is also a notable African American Book Club member (AALBC). Maintaining consistent literary balance, Mitchell is also an expert niche writer for e-zine articles. Her latest projects are represented on her author's page on Amazon.com. Outside the United States, Mitchell’s books were sold nationwide, including in Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, and virtually around the world. Mitchell currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Book preview

FOREWORD

This is the unauthorized biography of Olympic Ice-skating star, Debra Janine Thomas, the fantastic skater who won the bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and the skater who graduated from Stanford University to become an orthopedic surgeon. Over 30 years after her big win on the ice, Debi Thomas remains America’s groundbreaking talented American beauty of the ice, who retired from amateur skating after the Olympics in 1988. Outstanding Debi was one of the world’s best skaters. In her heyday, Debi performed for Stars on Ice, and won the 1988 World Professional Championships in Landover, Maryland in 1988, 1989 and 1991. Moreover, she is the medical doctor who dared to Question Authority to challenge the system to do more for her patients. On Wikipedia, Debi is renowned to be skilled at performing medical procedures and well-liked by patients. Overall, Debi Thomas was out to change the world by resisting set standards and by shattering records in skating and medicine as one of the brightest, most inspirational Black females on the planet. There was no reason to believe this talented artist would not attain such far-reaching goals, until she appeared in 2015 on Oprah’s Fix My Life, broke and indigent. Her appearance on the OWN Network on November 17, 2015, shocked America.

Opening

She is the most successful Black skater of our times, the woman Time magazine put on its cover; she’s the professional that ABC’s Wide World of Sports named Athlete of the Year in 1986. This is the venue for Debi to tell her own story. Debi will speak via interviews and letters in her own words. Her truth is derived from newspaper articles, her Twitter and YouTube outlets. Her truth will be illuminating to readers. This may be the first time the full breadth of Debi’s situation with domestic violence has been told.

As a medical doctor, Debi told the Washington Post that she expected to be one of the leaders in joint-replacement therapy, considered a viable treatment in case of severe joint pain or dysfunction. This method requires less-invasive therapies. It is a form of arthroplasty to treat various joint diseases, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Whereas considering her brilliance in the field, Debi’s wish did not come true unfortunately. Once she gets the horror of her past relationship out of her system, many doors will begin to open again for Debi.

When I received the harrowing message from Debi Thomas that Jamie aimed a gun at her head, suddenly the story about Debi’s incredible successes in skating and medicine are in the background of the abuse she’s suffered for almost a decade now.

The biggest puzzle is how Debi Thomas, once a darling on the ice, ended up with a loser like Jamie. Debi is a star. She did not only win the bronze medal in figure skating during the 1988 Olympic Games, rather she is a far more superior star than most will glean. I say this because I know Debi is the most giving individual I ever know, and I believe her when she says she wants to change the world. Knowing how hard she has been fighting a serious domestic violence existence, she leaves me feeling serious about congealing her history. I know the brash truth is something a very private Debi may be unwilling to reveal. She is no doubt a great Doctor/Olympian of the 21st century; therefore, the world must become familiar with the real star to learn how she changed diabolically from having two careers to selling gold to being on Fix My Life. Many want to know how the fame came to such a sudden stop and I know enough about these details to lay it out for you. See how she felt about losing the gold to Katarina Witt in Calgary, during an event that changed Debi’s life. You’re going to see how she feels about race, her mother, dating, skating, marriage, and betrayal by a loved one.

We’re going to intricately break down why Debi appeared on a national TV exposition via a reality TV show. I will break it down in segments and incorporate Debi’s own thoughts about Bipolar disorder and let her tell you her own side of those issues. I will tell you why The Own Network exploited Debi and why they should have known better when they shocked America with the sordid details of Debi’s life. In a harrowing exposition of Debi’s incredible losses, do not forget to stay tuned for the star’s heartbreaking 2013 unedited letter to fans, featuring a mind-blowing betrayal by none other than Jamie Looney.

Chapter 1

Debra Janine Thomas

Here is where I humbly present to you the Unauthorized Biography of Debra Janine Thomas. From my intricate phone interviews, I give you everything from her amazing accomplishments to her unexpected, earthshattering downfall, while I explain the intricate routes that lead to Debi’s foreboding, still talking about the change in life. These ambitious goals and life matters could not be sustained without Debi’s own contributions, on ranging topics from skating to Debi’s opinion on COVID-19. It’s her heartfelt interpretations of her life, that one will experience from Debi via her own social media postings while getting, in addition, a rare chance to hear Debi’s side of the story. From her ambiguous diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder to why she was not there to raise her only child, Luc Bequette; we will learn from Debi what happened, and why she was ever so intent on bucking the system because of her beliefs in Questioning Authority. Moreover, she takes us to the Olympics on one of the most monumental nights of her life telling us she was never meant to win the gold! Using bold strokes, Debi takes on Iyanla Vanzant, the media, and the fans by giving readers the truth about her wins and losses as prescribed by Debi Thomas.

On these pages, Debi’s voice is imperative, for her truth is vital to the narration of the events of her life. To make our fair presentation, we took to Facebook, Twitter, and varying Social Media forums to allow the skating superstar to speak in her own voice, to explain Bipolar Disease and most stunningly, to tell readers how she lost it all. Herewith, I am determined for her inflections of her life to take lead often within this book, for unlike the biased opinions of the mass media, Debi has an intriguing story to tell. Herewith, I am submitting to you my story about Debi in the most earnest way possible via phone interviews I first engaged in with Debi Thomas and her fiancée’ Jamie Looney from 2017-2020.

As the willing ears of her truth, I listened to Debi for a period to uncover many details of her life that will stun America. With those facts in hand, I am desirous that history will sustain this book as a vehicle for readers to understand Debi Thomas’s joy and pain; for, at the end of the day, it is plausible that her rare contributions in the arts, medicine, and domestic violence are recorded as correctly as possible for those with a yearning to know what exactly happened to Olympic skater, Debi Thomas.

For history’s sake, at the time of this writing, the world is suffering a nasty pandemic termed the COVID-19 virus that has worst hit the entire nation And you’ll read Debi’s opinion on this topic also at the end of the book. Currently, the 45th President, Donald J. Trump activates the National Guard in hard-hit states as the Coronavirus patients reach the mammoth 1.2 million figure with nearly 70,000 fatalities, the most in any country in the world. At this writing, the President predicts there will be 200,000 deaths or more within the upcoming weeks, as hard-hit New York City seeks to flatten the curve. Today, a once robust economy died, houses across the nation are on an imposed lock down, as many are getting tired of staying in. No one can leave their abodes except to buy groceries or to fill prescriptions. By Easter 2020, April 12, many Americans had to withstand the loss of 6.6 million jobs. Many are also waiting for their part of a $2 trillion-dollar stimulus payout.

On March 25, 1967—53-years ago—Debi Thomas, one of America’s greatest ice-skating stars, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is an icon of US Skating history, from the 70s–90s. I interviewed the Olympic skating star and her fiancé Jamie Looney from 2017-2020 for a book, which was written to examine what happened in Debi’s nine-year relationship with her boyfriend Jamie Looney, and how being with him resulted in her change of life. With truth riding the ever-changing waves of this tell-all, matters in this book may not always be favorable to either subject while much of it is written to preserve Debi’s legacy, using her own words and experiences, as they relate to her public and professional life.

This book intricately examines how Debi’s life changed after meeting Jamie and how after almost 10 years of abuse, she was able to leave her abuser in the nick of time to survive domestic violence. This book details a back and forth of abuse from a worn trailer in the Appalachian Mountains that will stun America. For her many successes, her opinions, and for her shocking hidden experiences with domestic violence, the Debi Thomas we know and love is lucky to be alive.

Inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000, President George W. Bush chose Debra Janine Thomas to be part of the U.S. Delegation for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. I remember watching this event with my sister Norma, a huge Debi fan, on TV thinking Debi Thomas made the entire world proud by proving a Black girl could win on the ice against stellar competitors. The world was hers forever!

Chapter 2

Our Conversations

To bring you into 2020 with Debi’s story, I will begin with the end, citing what happened during my last conversation with Debi after two years of interviewing her and Jamie for the book. The last conversation took place within a time when life was changing for Jamie, Debi, and me. I was in gear to vacation in Oakland for a few months and was planning to come back to Arizona to finish my book. Jamie was reeling from the fact that Debi had found wings to leave her abuser. It appeared she was not going back to Virginia. It is ironic how I was a few days into settling back in Arizona and was walking to Albertson’s to get food when the thought of this introduction for the Debi Thomas book came to my mind. It was January 2020. Our last call took place a month before Black History Month when the skating superstar was heavily on my mind because each year at this time, Black History personified Debi Thomas. I was very proud of America’s best Black female skater and couldn’t wait to post a video about Debi on my Facebook page. At this time, I had already met Debi. In fact, I had known her for several years. I adored her from the sidelines for over 30 years. By the time we spoke for the last time, I had completed my interviews for the book with her and Jamie and was frankly glad that the period of life was over. Therefore, I was no longer speaking to either of them daily as I had been before in collecting my fact-finding information/data about their lives. I was the only voice in the media with intricate details about what really had happened to Debi Thomas. I intended to write the book mostly to preserve Debi’s history until the topic of domestic violence seeped into Debi’s story and threatened to rule the day. Ideas often will rivet a writer at the most unsuspecting times, that’s why some writers keep paper and pencil at hand. In my case, I rely on the messages feature on my Smart-Phone, to remind me not to overlook the sensitive details of Debi’s insidious bout with domestic violence.

Here we were two-years after my first interview with Debi when Debi forbade me to write this book. Exhausted from the interviews, I was taking my time putting pen to paper; knowing for all I had amassed materially on this couple, I was writing this book regardless of Debi’s resistance. Though I had been through the wringer with Debi and Jamie, I would emerge from this long, engaging inquisition, knowing how Debi deserved a firm place in history, irrespective of the sad events that took place and changed her life. I do recall that it was during our first interview in 2017 when Debi told me she was not happy about this idea of me writing a book about her life. Via mixed-messages, by the undertones of our conversation regarding how much Debi was willing to divulge to me about her current living situation, I detected that she wanted the book. I also picked up on how liberally the couple was revealing the daily abuses in their lives. Debi and Jamie were willing partners in spilling out tons of personal details of Debi’s bittersweet events on and off the ice; so I considered Debi an important figure to shed light on the topic of domestic violence.

For all I know about Debi Thomas, Debi is a likable star and I was glad that my love for Debi Thomas didn’t diminish even after those intricate interviews. She is soft-spoken, sweet, and at times funny. With issues that go back to missing those jumps in the Olympics, her steady stream of abuse is ongoing and prisonlike, in how Debi wants to be liberated from abuse while she is steadfastly mired into it. For all I was told and what I heard, Debi does not know how to leave her abuser when her role is a healer. Getting straight to the point, I told Debi that in her experiences with this highly complicated relationship of violence and abuse, stood the chance of helping others, especially as it relates to domestic violence, which is so alarmingly prevalent in urban communities. Even after frequent conversations, Debi did not want the details concerning the abuse she suffered to be publicized. Victimhood was not the way her life was supposed to be. Debi was in denial of such horrid events. The West Coast rich girl from the affluent San Jose middle-class upbringing was knocked down by an unemployed, addicted partner who lived in a filthy trailer in the formidable Appalachian Mountains.

I will write my own story, an angry Debi defended one night when I told her I was writing her biography. The statement caught me off guard because generally, Debi was sweet as molasses.

Nobody knows my life better than me, Debi Thomas said to me. One year into my interviews with her, Debi continued to flounder, while I took into effect the concept of truly incorporating the real Debi into her own sad tale. Debi being broke and uneasy, her resistance to truth ruled the day when she was mad at the world, thinking all social media was prejudicial and judgmental about her. Debi felt paranoia towards Google, in particular.

Chapter 3

Will Debi Write Her Book

They’re all blocking me, Debi often complained. Unfortunately, after being pummeled by her abusive boyfriend for almost a decade, Debi was in no condition to write her own book, but she argued she could within the framework of formidable mental pressures. There was little chance she would expose Jamie Looney when she would not admit she was being abused by the man. When it came to Jamie to Debi, the way he treated her was not his fault, rather it was somebody else’s fault; therefore, Debi was incapable of telling the full truth about her life with Jamie. Situated inside burrowing mountains, lakes, and seas, nobody really cared about Debi Thomas anymore. Impoverished, she did not have a dime; in fact, Debi Thomas was destitute, and writing a book was the last thing on the superstar’s mind. Her Driver’s License was expiring, and she did not have the money for renewal. Jamie sold her prized Prius, against Debi’s will. Stripped down to the bolts, after years of abuse by Jamie, by January 2020, Debi found refuge and was living in a room in a condo with her 81-year-old father McKinney Thomas, in Chandler, Arizona. She was flat broke. Debi told me her new place had cockroaches, but it was a far cry from the filthy trailer from which she had liberated herself.

Speaking of Jamie Looney, Debi’s lover cum enemy, prior to Debi’s escape from the trailer, Jamie came up with many schemes for a broke Debi to make money and there was no way in hell that Debi would ever indulge the world with the true, awful machinations of Jamie Looney. Those efforts included a poorly executed scheme to create a show about reality that was to be disguised as reality TV. Their ingrained plan, premature as it turned out to be, was to do a show called, Can We Go Nowhere Any Faster? - Socially, Responsibly Questioning Authority. When their interested benefactor died in 2014, Debi reached out to OWN with the idea. However, soon enough, she found that corporate media was apparently not interested in looking for solutions for bigger problems, but was more interested in exploiting and clowning the couple for how bad things had become for Debi. Nothing worked, so they ended up with a GoFundMe page begging for support, while Debi missed important factors in her life that could have viably saved her business and the shame she suffered; emotionally, Debi was reluctant to take the blame of exposing one mishap after another to the general public.

Snowballed

None of Jamie’s moneymaking ideas from the reality TV to charities to Karatbars rose to the financial fluidity that was essential to the couple’s sustenance. Matter of fact, after they appeared on OWN, matters snowballed for the poor couple. After going through the wringer with Jamie, Debi Thomas was not the same superstar we once loved. In fact, trapped in the horrors of filth and bitter poverty, she had gone into the business of fielding her boyfriend’s endless triggers until he almost killed her. Jamie was serious about bringing Debi Thomas down. He placed her into her second tier of public denial within our phone interviews. I learned during the interviews that she had been trying to leave her abuser for years, but could not. Subsequently, Jamie was shrewd enough to fill Debi up with the kind of guilt that disabled her capacity to lay blame on Jamie where it was warranted. It was bullshit until she thought if she stayed mired in this misery, she could heal Jamie. By the time Debi Thomas resolved to leave Jamie Looney, the damage to her reputation, her finances, her career, and her life, was irreparable.

On the topic of the book, I was keen on focusing on how bad Jamie treated Debi, and how her freedom from him depended on her being liberated from this toxic relationship by the family, friends, and some strangers. It happened this way because Debi was a wounded animal who could not leave Jamie

Reviews for Debi Thomas, What Really Happened

[carol mitchell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazon.com Clarence Coggins
5.0 out of 5 stars A Look Beyond The "Fix Your Life" Story on Debi Thomas
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2020
Verified Purchase

The book asks one question which is probably in the minds of millions of fans of Debi Thomas. In it the author states, “Transparency means truth, not annihilation of the great work done.” This statement is appropriate for this stark and sobering look at the effects an addictive personality combine with domestic violence and a rebellious streak.
It the book Debi makes this request of the author, “I want you to write a book on Jamie and me, and our relationship,” This request is most definitely is fulfilled. It’s driven home like a sledgehammer in the first 5 chapters and more. The troubled relationship between Debi and the love of her life Jamie is made very clear.
The book raises and presents the reader with the material to answer many questions. Was she colorblind or color struck? Did she purposely choose to reject her color to prove she wasn’t defined by it? Was Racism the key to Debi's unraveling? What role did money play?

The book is written in a style that could be called reality tv in print. It draws the reader in with promises of revelations hitherto unexposed to the world. It quotes Debi as saying, “People, who believe everything they see on TV, are the biggest danger we have to society.” And the reader gets more of her story than what Oprah and the OWN covered on their show “Fix My Life”.
This isn’t a light read. It isn’t that something that won’t make you flinch in several places. It does however uplift the reader and gives an intimate look at this amazing woman who took on racial norms and conquered them. It also let’s people know there is hope when dealing in situations related to domestic violence.