doc_text: Debi Thomas' dream of Olympic gold turned into disappointment Saturday as East Germany's Katarina Witt won her second straight Olympic championship and Canadian Elizabeth Manley took home the silver before a crowd of cheering countrymen.
  "It's over.
  Back to school," said Thomas, who won the bronze medal despite three faulty landings.
  "I'm not going to make any excuses.
  I was really skating well this week.
  It wasn't supposed to happen, I guess.
  But I tried."
  While the top two skaters in the world staged a shootout to music from Bizet's "Carmen," Manley was so sensational in the freestyle that she finished first with seven judges.
  Combined with a fourth in the compulsory figures and a third-place finish in the short program earlier in the week, the performance put Manley in second place.
  Witt, a three-time world champion from East Germany, became the first repeat singles champion since Dick Button took Olympic gold in 1948 and '52.
  Sonja Henie of Norway was the only woman to do it before Witt, winning in 1928, 1932 and 1936.
  Thomas, of San Jose, Calif., the first black to win a U.S. figure skating crown and the 1986 world champion, skated poorly Saturday after doing well earlier in the Games.
  By contrast, Manley had the sellout crowd at the Olympic Saddledome enraptured.
  They cheered, hooted and stamped their feet when she finished hitting every element of her program.
  Jill Trenary of Minnetonka, Minn., finished fourth.
  She was fifth heading into the long program, worth 50 percent of the overall score.
  Thomas' bronze was the third figure skating medal here for the United States.
  Brian Boitano won the men's crown, and a bronze in pairs went to Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard.
  In addition to the three figure skating medals, the U.S. team had three speed-skating medals: one each gold, silver and bronze.
  Speed skater Bonnie Blair, America's only double medalist, tried again Saturday in the 1,500 meters but finished fourth, well off the pace.
  She won the gold in the 500 and the bronze in the 1,000 meters.
  As the Olympics winded up its next-to-last day, the Soviet Union had 27 medals, including 11 golds, while East Germany in second place had 22, including nine golds.
summary_text: Debi Thomas, the US hope for a figure skating gold medal in the 1988 Winter Olympics, was disappointed when the Gold went to Germany's Katarina Witt and the Silver to Canadian Elizabeth Manley.
  Manley was loudly cheered by fellow Canadians throughout her performance.
  Thomas, who was a US and 1986 world champion, was awarded the Bronze medal.
  Other US figure skating medal winners Brian Boitano with the Gold and Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard with the Bronze in pairs.
  US speed skaters won gold, silver, and bronze with Bonnie Blair taking both a gold and a Bronze.