that's when debbie thomas was the first american athlete to win a medal at the olympics. our john henry smith talked to thomas about that life-changing experience. >> debbie, you took bronze in the olympics, and i know you wanted gold. and was that a positive experience? do you have good memories or bad memories? >> i kind of make fun of my bronze medal. i say that it looks gold. i was winning and ended up with the bronze, so my final olympic performance was not my favorite of all time. but i did make history. i became the first black athlete to medal in the olympics. so it's a bronze medal. so i can't complain too much. >> debbie, how did you get into figure skating in the first place? >> well, my mom exposed me to a lot of things, and i chose one of them, and strangely, my favorite person in the ice show was this comedian, mr. frick, and the real mr. frick had been following my career, and he was this and gave me flowers after i won my championship. and it was pretty surreal having your childhood idol be there when you were on top of the world. >> reporter: debbie, from

. >> debbie thomas, brodalist in the winter olympics. >> a boat load of road salt - one state needs it but may be unable to get it because of an unusual law that's neecial -- nearly 100 years old. and back to kiev. one of the blood yesterdays of fighting. the health ministry says 25 have been killed and hundreds more have been injured. we are following the situation from kiev throughout the morning. stay with i must begin my journey, which will cause me to miss the end of the game. the x1 entertainment operating system lets your watch live tv anywhere. can i watch it in butterfly valley? sure. can i watch it in glimmering lake? yep. here, too. what about the dark castle? you call that defense?! come on! [ female announcer ] watch live tv anywhere. the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ t

we had watch parties for boy tan no and debby thomas. she would be another star. >> reporter: absolutely, raj. this is the watch party por for polina edmunds. the opening ceremony tonight. i'm surrounded by skaters who skate here like polina. speaking of skaters we have one of the great ice dancers, the woman who choreographed a lot of what you'll see in polina's routine. thanks for joining us. a gold medal winner. what do you tell someone like polina all of 15 going for the first time? >> well, i want to encourage polina stay calm, be in good health through all olympics, compete with great confidence and land all her jumps. >> just like here at sharks ice. thank you so much. i'll tell you, we've got a lot of skaters here and we even have a prop here, this is a fund-raiser. we've got polina mass bes for $2. all of the proceeds go to the american cancer society. you can use it as a fan if you are feeling -- like sochi it's -- so raj and jess, back to you. >> throwing out the russian. >> that's how smart he is. >> wow. impressed. >> thank