Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list?

Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Printable Version

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Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - cctop - 06-22-2024

Anybody know why Stanford doesn't list Debi Thomas (1991, bronze medalist 1988) among its Olympic medal winners?

https://gostanford.com/news/2023/05/25/olympic-medal-history

The Wikipedia article counts 6 medalists that Stanford doesn't count:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_universities_with_Olympic_medalist_students_and_alumni
Stanford's count (296=150+79+67) may have overlooked or excluded some medals from the past Summer/Winter Olympics. For fair comparison, some of these medals have been manually added to Stanford's count in this list (with supporting sources): Alma Richards (1 gold), Debi Thomas (1 bronze), Sami Jo Small (2 golds, 1 silver), and John Coyle (1 silver).

I was looking at this because I'd thought Stanford had the most Olympians of any school, but according to these sources USC has the most.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - PVTree - 06-22-2024

Only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps she got her medal before she was affiliated with Stanford.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - cctop - 06-22-2024

(06-22-2024, 11:06 AM)PVTree Wrote: Only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps she got her medal before she was affiliated with Stanford.

That's not it...Debi Thomas was an undergrad a year ahead of me during the 1988 Olympics and got her degree from Stanford.

Also Stanford and USC both appear to be counting people who won medals before and after their time as students. For example, both schools count Janet Evans among their totals. Evans attended Stanford in between the 1988 and 1992 Olympics where she won her medals, and she attended USC after the 1992 Olympics.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - 82lsju - 06-22-2024

regarding the Stanford Olympic medal count on gostanford

I think they only count summer Olympics since they make the claim

Quote:
The Cardinal has produced at least one medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has competed since 1912.

which would not be true if they included the winter Olympics

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Mick - 06-22-2024

(06-22-2024, 02:16 PM)82lsju Wrote: regarding the Stanford Olympic medal count on gostanford

I think they only count summer Olympics since they make the claim

Quote:
The Cardinal has produced at least one medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has competed since 1912.

which would not be true if they included the winter Olympics

Heiden and his five speedskating golds aren't on the list either.

(06-22-2024, 11:39 AM)cctop Wrote:
(06-22-2024, 11:06 AM)PVTree Wrote: Only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps she got her medal before she was affiliated with Stanford.

That's not it...Debi Thomas was an undergrad a year ahead of me during the 1988 Olympics and got her degree from Stanford.

Also Stanford and USC both appear to be counting people who won medals before and after their time as students. For example, both schools count Janet Evans among their totals. Evans attended Stanford in between the 1988 and 1992 Olympics where she won her medals, and she attended USC after the 1992 Olympics.

They counted Alma Richards as a USC medal (from where he graduated), but he also attended Cornell and Stanford...neither university claims him for purposes of medal count.

Students at California universities have an inordinate number of Olympic medals. Not only are the first four universities by overall medal count all from California (USC, Stanford, UCLA, Cal), but two more are in the Top 50 (Long Beach State with 47is ranked #27 and UC Irvine with 33 is ranked #37) are in the Top 50. Eight other CA universities have scored medals including SJSU (21), SCU (18), UCSB (15), CSU-Northridge (14), SDSU (14), UC-Davis (10), Cal Poly Pomona (7) and Saddleback College (1 - Ashley Wagner won a figure skating bronze in the 2014 Winter Olympics, in case you were wondering).

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - TonyLima - 06-22-2024

Mick dateline='[url=tel:1719099258' Wrote: 1719099258[/url]']

82lsju dateline='[url=tel:1719090976' Wrote: 1719090976[/url]']
regarding the Stanford Olympic medal count on gostanford

I think they only count summer Olympics since they make the claim

Quote:
The Cardinal has produced at least one medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has competed since 1912.

which would not be true if they included the winter Olympics

Heiden and his five speedskating golds aren't on the list either.

cctop dateline='[url=tel:1719081571' Wrote: 1719081571[/url]']

PVTree dateline='[url=tel:1719079599' Wrote: 1719079599[/url]']
Only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps she got her medal before she was affiliated with Stanford.

That's not it...Debi Thomas was an undergrad a year ahead of me during the 1988 Olympics and got her degree from Stanford.

Also Stanford and USC both appear to be counting people who won medals before and after their time as students. For example, both schools count Janet Evans among their totals. Evans attended Stanford in between the 1988 and 1992 Olympics where she won her medals, and she attended USC after the 1992 Olympics.

They counted Alma Richards as a USC medal (from where he graduated), but he also attended Cornell and Stanford...neither university claims him for purposes of medal count.

Students at California universities have an inordinate number of Olympic medals. Not only are the first four universities by overall medal count all from California (USC, Stanford, UCLA, Cal), but two more are in the Top 50 (Long Beach State with 47is ranked #27 and UC Irvine with 33 is ranked #37) are in the Top 50. Eight other CA universities have scored medals including SJSU (21), SCU (18), UCSB (15), CSU-Northridge (14), SDSU (14), UC-Davis (10), Cal Poly Pomona (7) and Saddleback College (1 - Ashley Wagner won a figure skating bronze in the 2014 Winter Olympics, in case you were wondering).

Wow. Thanks. Impressive. But it seems like these lists need regulatory standards.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Treebound - 06-22-2024

Re Debi Thomas and also Eric Heiden's Olympic medals not being counted in Stanford's tally, I asked this of Earl Koberline, when he was an assistant AD. He was the person that tracked these stats better than anyone else at the time. He told me that there had been an internal discussion within the AD and the decision was that because Stanford didn't technically offer figure or speed skating as a sport, they decided that those medals were not appropriate to add to Stanford's medal count. I guarantee you, that if either of those two people had any affiliation with u$c, the trojans would find a way to put it into their medal count.

I think there were also a few other Stanford alums that won winter olympic medals and IMHO, they at least deserve a footnoted listing on the Stanford Olympic site that the AD is building. We are proud of all of our Olympic alums! I'm hoping the AD does a really nice job on the Olympics this year. I don't think any school is close to our participation and medal count over the last 50 years. Stanford is truly a training ground for Team USA! not to mention a number other countries.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Jamesy - 06-22-2024

(06-22-2024, 08:07 PM)Treebound Wrote: Re Debi Thomas and also Eric Heiden's Olympic medals not being counted in Stanford's tally, I asked this of Earl Koberline, when he was an assistant AD. He was the person that tracked these stats better than anyone else at the time. He told me that there had been an internal discussion within the AD and the decision was that because Stanford didn't technically offer figure or speed skating as a sport, they decided that those medals were not appropriate to add to Stanford's medal count. I guarantee you, that if either of those two people had any affiliation with u$c, the trojans would find a way to put it into their medal count.

I think there were also a few other Stanford alums that won winter olympic medals and IMHO, they at least deserve a footnoted listing on the Stanford Olympic site that the AD is building. We are proud of all of our Olympic alums! I'm hoping the AD does a really nice job on the Olympics this year. I don't think any school is close to our participation and medal count over the last 50 years. Stanford is truly a training ground for Team USA! not to mention a number other countries.

That makes sense to me though we don't offer any winter Olympic sports. Eileen Gu also won't count.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - 2006alum - 06-22-2024

(06-22-2024, 08:14 PM)Jamesy Wrote:
(06-22-2024, 08:07 PM)Treebound Wrote: Re Debi Thomas and also Eric Heiden's Olympic medals not being counted in Stanford's tally, I asked this of Earl Koberline, when he was an assistant AD. He was the person that tracked these stats better than anyone else at the time. He told me that there had been an internal discussion within the AD and the decision was that because Stanford didn't technically offer figure or speed skating as a sport, they decided that those medals were not appropriate to add to Stanford's medal count. I guarantee you, that if either of those two people had any affiliation with u$c, the trojans would find a way to put it into their medal count.

I think there were also a few other Stanford alums that won winter olympic medals and IMHO, they at least deserve a footnoted listing on the Stanford Olympic site that the AD is building. We are proud of all of our Olympic alums! I'm hoping the AD does a really nice job on the Olympics this year. I don't think any school is close to our participation and medal count over the last 50 years. Stanford is truly a training ground for Team USA! not to mention a number other countries.

That makes sense to me though we don't offer any winter Olympic sports. Eileen Gu also won't count.

Gu can keep her medals. I wouldn't want to count them anyway.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Mick - 06-22-2024

(06-22-2024, 08:07 PM)Treebound Wrote: Re Debi Thomas and also Eric Heiden's Olympic medals not being counted in Stanford's tally, I asked this of Earl Koberline, when he was an assistant AD. He was the person that tracked these stats better than anyone else at the time. He told me that there had been an internal discussion within the AD and the decision was that because Stanford didn't technically offer figure or speed skating as a sport, they decided that those medals were not appropriate to add to Stanford's medal count. I guarantee you, that if either of those two people had any affiliation with u$c, the trojans would find a way to put it into their medal count.

I think there were also a few other Stanford alums that won winter olympic medals and IMHO, they at least deserve a footnoted listing on the Stanford Olympic site that the AD is building. We are proud of all of our Olympic alums! I'm hoping the AD does a really nice job on the Olympics this year. I don't think any school is close to our participation and medal count over the last 50 years. Stanford is truly a training ground for Team USA! not to mention a number other countries.

I wonder if the same is true for Nobel Prize winners. If Stanford didn't offer or teach the underlying academic work, should Stanford still "count" the Nobel prize winner? (Yes, I know, of course they should...just poking the bear).

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Farm93 - 06-23-2024

The Stanford doesn't offer the sport approach will look less viable with some of the 2024 and 2028 introductions. In the 2024 and 2028 Olympics there will be a slew of sports that are not in any NCAA program.

Breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing are all on the 2024 list and none of them are NCAA sports.  2028 will have flag football too. I am sure other schools would be eager to add any Olympic medals to their tallies even if the winners won the medals before attending the school.

I can easily imagine that California will produce some of the better flag football players thanks in part to CIF's focus, and that some will attend Stanford. Would Stanford not include them? Or would Stanford include men's winners based on offering a D-1 football program, but not winners on the women's side?

FWIW 1- From a certain point of view Walsh's beach volleyball medals shouldn't really count either since she won those medals before Stanford had a beach program.
FWIW 2 - Sadly Brink will not allow us to test another hypothetical in 2024, but Stanford also doesn't offer 3X3 basketball.

Really should count them all IMHO. If an alum won Olympic medals add them to the tally.
Might be nice to note if they won them before or after attending Stanford, but in the end add them all.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - BostonCard - 06-23-2024

Personally, I would count all the medals (yes, even Guo's) but separate out medal's won by Stanford athletes (even if they won it in a sport such as beach volleyball that Stanford didn't offer at the time) as long as they competed intercollegiately for a sport at Stanford, and Stanford alums who did not compete for Stanford. This would also address the issue of former athletes who came to Stanford for graduate school and did not compete officially for Stanford.

Stanford University should be proud of both, as we would be if a Stanford alum won a Nobel Peace prize for something that had nothing to do with what they studied or worked on while at Stanford.

BC

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - 82lsju - 06-23-2024

USC seems to be very inclusive in their Olympic participant and medalist list with medal winners in non-NCAA events like equestrian and modern pentathlon and participants in other non-NCAA sports as well

https://www.olympics.usctrojans.com/all-time-olympians

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - Treebound - 06-23-2024

I would love to see a tally of which university has the most Olympic participants and medal winners for Team USA. My guess is that we would rank #1 in both categories, as schools like usc (aka university of southern croatia for water polo under the head coach that was booted under Varsity Blues) tended to have more non-US athletes than most. Yes, I still want to track all participants and medal winners for Stanford, but I've never been able to find a list for Team USA. As for our Winter Olympic participants and medal winners, as other have pointed out, I think we should include them in our tally and give them their due.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - fullmetal - 06-23-2024

I think you might find mixed feelings among alumni who medaled in non-sponsored sports. Some might feel like claiming those medals under the auspices of Stanford would be "stolen valor" on the part of the athletic department that did nothing to aid the student-athlete. Others might find solace in recognition.

RE: Debi Thomas not listed in Stanford's Olympic medal list? - CTcard - 06-24-2024

(06-22-2024, 08:14 PM)Jamesy Wrote:
(06-22-2024, 08:07 PM)Treebound Wrote: Re Debi Thomas and also Eric Heiden's Olympic medals not being counted in Stanford's tally, I asked this of Earl Koberline, when he was an assistant AD. He was the person that tracked these stats better than anyone else at the time. He told me that there had been an internal discussion within the AD and the decision was that because Stanford didn't technically offer figure or speed skating as a sport, they decided that those medals were not appropriate to add to Stanford's medal count.

That makes sense to me though we don't offer any winter Olympic sports. Eileen Gu also won't count.

That would also be the case for Sami Jo Small, listed above. She was on the Canadian Women's Olympic Ice Hockey team three times.
She was recruited to Stanford for track and field - throwing events. She also played on the (mostly) men's club ice hockey team and was apparently the Pac MVP one year - so there is an excuse to count her.
She was also on my swimming team growing up. She was enough younger than me that I didn't know her well but knew her older brother Luke better. [Also quite talented but also more interested in hockey.]