8801100234 DETROIT FREE PRESS 880228 Sunday, February 28, 1988 METRO FINAL CHASER

NWS

1A Photo United Press International MITCH ALBOM Copyright (c) 1988, Detroit Free Press DEBI'S MOMENT SLIPPED AWAY CALGARY, Alberta -- The moment began to unravel with every false step of Debi Thomas' skates. What was happening? This wasn't the ending America had dreamed about. This wasn't Olympic magic. This was Thomas, no one but herself to overcome, missing one jump, missing another, nearly falling to the ice, tumbling off the rainbow, past gold, past silver. Mistakes? Mistakes. "I'm sorry," she whispered to herself, to her coach, to everybody, as she skated off the ice, the reality of the moment hitting like a brick of ice: The gold medal in this women's figure skating showdown had been right there, center of the world, hers for the taking. She had given it back. "What happened?" someone asked Thomas, who finished a shocking third behind East Germany's Katarina Witt and Canada's Elizabeth Manley, after her freestyle program became a slippery nightmare. "What went wrong?" "I . . . just didn't feel above my feet tonight," she said. "It was a long wait. . . . I'm not going to make any excuses. It just wasn't supposed to happen, I guess." How sad did that leave you? How let down did you feel? Wasn't everybody watching this? Grown men and grown women and beer drinkers and juice drinkers and kids in pajamas who got to stay up late because it was "our Debi" and "their Katarina," East vs. West, aesthetics versus athletics. It had all been figured out. Only the judges held any mystery. Witt would skate her "Carmen" and Thomas would skate her "Carmen" and all the watchers would hold their breath. Wasn't that right? Instead, here was Thomas, after a botched long program, crying on the shoulder of her coach, Alex McGowan; Janice Thomas, her mother, holding her head in her hands; and the U.S. fans in the Olympic Saddledome shrugging their shoulders, awaiting the marks that they knew would be the end. "I tried. . . ." Thomas mumbled to McGowan. "I just gave it away." Mistakes? Mistakes. How quickly had this come apart? In the course of Thomas' four minutes on ice Saturday night, a year-long buildup had been dismantled. This was to be the battle of these XV Winter Games, wasn't it? Sure, there were skiers, bobsledders, hockey players. But figure skating has long been the most watched of Olympic events, and when you pit East vs. West, style versus substance, beauty versus athleticism -- set to the same damn opera music! -- well, hey. What more do you want? "Tonight's the Night!" read headlines across Calgary, and no one needed ask what they meant. Witt vs. Thomas. Hadn't the first two portions of this competition played right into our sweaty hands? They were close after the compulsory figures. The short program, which many thought was clearly won by Thomas, went instead to Witt, by a fraction, with a disgusted McGowan holding his nose at the artistic marks for his skater. Ah, but now, Saturday night, the plot was taking a new twist. Remember that Thomas, 20, was considered technically superior, while Witt, 24, the reigning world champion, was the crown jewel of the East German sports system -- dark, haunting looks, full red lips. "Here," the GDR coaches gushed, "is something that even we cannot teach. Sex appeal." And they had flaunted it. So much so that Witt been criticized for being too much sweet, not enough sweat. And when she skated her expected sultry, alluring rendition of "Carmen" Saturday night, the difficulty factor was clearly not there. One long dramatic stretch (one minute, 16 seconds) in which Witt supposedly seduces the men of the opera, was not seductive to the judges. She received several marks of 5.6 and 5.7 for technical merit, and although her artistic marks were high (mostly 5.9s), the gauntlet of challenge had been smashed for Thomas: Be great, no mistakes, and the gold medal is yours. "I thought if Debi skated her best and did all her jumps she could take it" Witt admitted. So did everyone else. Pictures of Thomas pacing in the waiting room prompted U.S. viewers everywhere to send her unspoken vibes. "Just be great," America seemed to whisper. "Be great." How sad then, at that moment, greatness did not come. Thomas had slapped McGowan's hands just before she skated out, slapped them the way a football player might slap them, and he said to her, "You're the best!" and surely everyone watching believed it. But she was not the best, not on this night, to be cruelly honest, she simply blew it. Her first combination ended with a shaky landing. Two other jumps were not cleanly completed. On a fourth she was so off-balance she needed to catch herself with a hand. The crowd moaned, a sound that will no doubt stay in Thomas' nightmares for an ungodly number of years. Perhaps no one should be expected to perform in a pressure cooker situation like that. But these are the Olympics. Witt skated under that pressure and Manley, the surprise performer of the night, nearly turned out the lights on all of them. Only her standing entering the long program (third) kept Manley, who actually won Saturday night's competition, from grabbing the gold before her home crowd. So pressure cannot be blamed. The judges cannot be blamed. Sadly, only Thomas can be blamed. "I'll live," she said afterward, to her credit, and indeed she will. And so ends what was to be the show of shows, another disappointment for America in an Olympics full of American disappointments. It had been right there, for the taking, this gold medal dream. But dreams, as Thomas now knows, are as thin as a skate blade. And can just as easily trip you up. CUTLINE: Debi Thomas slips during Saturday's performance, dashing her hopes for a gold medal. XV WINTER GAMES;OLYMPICS;DEBI THOMAS