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Especially for the capitalists, the disparate value of gold and silver is undeniable. "It still shocks me, the warmth and affection," Hamill says twelve years after her triumph at Innsbruck. "It never goes away." She continues to make star turns on television. Meanwhile, Lake Placid Silver Medalist Linda Fratianne, Thomas' childhood favorite, has done seven years of ten-month tours for Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom on Ice. Since 1980, skating's three disciplines (school figures, short program, long program) have been reformulated. By today's measurements, Fratianne would have won the gold medal. "But sometimes I think my sanity is better off with the silver," she says. "My father used to send me a bouquet of flowers before every competition. The card always read, 'Win or lose, you're still my champ.' "
Financially, Thomas figures, "whatever happens, I'll do pretty well." She has already started making commercials and, within the new amateur codes, has been stashing cash in a trust fund. "I want to make a lot of money. Someday I'd like to start a skating training center." To that end, she has discarded microbiology as a potential specialty in favor of orthopedic surgery. The Boston surgeon, Dr. Albright, admires both Thomas' skating ("She takes me out on the ice with her") and her thinking. "Debi's going to discover that there really are biochemical and physiological reasons for all these little things she's worked out on the ice. 'Oh, that's why!' she'll say. When the Olympics are over, I really think she'll need something bigger than she is, something as all-consuming as medicine."
As the Games approach, Thomas reflects, "This last amateur year has been like a long chapter finally closing. A new one will open up then. Back to Stanford, on to medical school. I never wanted to feel that if I didn't win the gold medal, I was nothing. I'm not worried anymore." Her mother says, "When I look back now, it isn't the money or the miles I think of, it's + all the years she skated well. All the times she quit, all the times I quit. Luckily, we never quit together." The Olympic theme piped increasingly on TV ads is beginning to get to Debi. "Goose bumps," she says. "I'll go through the house saying, 'I can't do it, I can't do it.' Then I'll get there, and I'll love it. One moment of glory is worth everything."