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Christopher BowmanA FINAL CONVERSATION WITH IFS MAGAZINE

By Nicole Cunningham

Bowman was found dead in a $55-a-night Los Angeles motel room Jan. 10. He was 40 years old.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled that the cause of death was an accidental drug overdose. The toxicology report revealed that within 12 to 24 hours of Bowman’s death, he had been drinking heavily (and had a 0.12 blood-alcohol level), and had used cocaine and taken the painkiller Vicodin. There were other drugs present in his system as well, including marijuana and Seroquel (a prescription commonly used to treat bipolar disorder).

A spokesman for the coroner’s office said Bowman had an enlarged heart, which was likely not present at birth, though the condition’s cause was not obvious. The once-agile athlete weighed in at nearly 300 pounds when he died.

Bowman left behind a 10-year-old daughter, Bianca, whom he had called his pride and joy. Among the belongings found with Bowman when he died was a wallet stuffed with photos of Bianca.

Bowman’s former wife of eight years, Annette Bowman, said their daughter is doing well. “Bianca is doing fine now,” she said. “In her little mind daddy can watch her all the time. That is how she is taking it.”

As to how to explain death to a 10-year-old, Annette Bowman did the best any mother could. “I always told her he had an illness and an addiction ... [and I told her] he had not treated his body too well and his heart stopped,” she explained.

Bowman’s coach of 18 years, Frank Carroll, said, “There were so many of us whose expectations were that he wouldn’t last until he was 40 years old. It wasn’t like it wasn’t expected, but it was still a shock, a sad shock when it really did happen.”

Nearly a year before he died, IFS magazine caught up with Bowman, in what appears to be his final major interview. In lengthy conversations between January 2007 and March 2007, Bowman openly reflected on his skating years, his struggles with substance abuse, his relationship with Carroll and his plans to reclaim the spotlight.

Here is Bowman’s take on his life, and the reflections of those who led, loved and ultimately lost him.

AN ARTIST FROM THE BEGINNINGIn an exhibition performance following one of his three Skate America wins, Bowman bounced proudly across the ice to the lyr-ics of “I’m Just a Bad Boy” to laughter and applause. His moussed, night-black hair feathered in the breeze as he flashed his famous devilish grin at both the crowd and the cameras. Bowman wiggled his hips to the lyric “Life is just a bowl of cherries.”

Eerily, reflecting on Bowman’s death, Carroll sighed, “Life is not a bowl of cherries.”

Bowman was famous for his ability to connect with crowds, never letting on what problems hid behind his always-ready smile. “He had that uncanny ability to skate brilliantly although he had those troubles,” Carroll said. “All of us coaches who knew him said he was the only one we ever knew who could not be in top training [condition] and put on the music and put on a top program.”

Bowman’s performances earned him a large and passionate fan base. And, being an exceptional artist seemed to be his destiny. Bowman was born to Nelson and Joyce Bowman in Hollywood, Calif. He played the character Ben for one season on the popular television series “Little House on the Prairie.” He starred in hun-dreds of commercials. After he tried skating at a shopping mall ice rink, skating lessons soon took the place of photo shoots, audi-tions and casting calls.

Bowman’s life changed when he met Carroll. “Frank was like a second father to me and I was like a son,” Bowman said. “He taught me all the way up from my first waltz jump through figure eights. It’s an outstanding achievement.”

One of Carroll’s other top students, Linda Fratianne, was 12 when she first noticed 5-year-old Bowman buzzing around the rink. She remembered thinking, “That little boy should be in commercials.”

ans roared in reverent approval at the 2008 U.S. Championships at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. when images of the late Christopher Bowman

appeared on the JumboTron. It had been 16 years since “Bowman the Showman,” as he was popularly known, had taken his second gold medal at the U.S. nationals, but his technique and luminous artistry have stood the test of time.

Christopher Bowman and daughter Bianca posed for a photo at a 2000 birthday brunch for the former skating great at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, Mich. Bowman’s daughter was his pride and joy.

In 1990 Viktor Petrenko (left), Kurt Browning (middle) and Christopher Bowman were the medalists at the World Championships.

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Christopher Bowman had “that uncanny ability to skate brilliantly” despite any off-ice problems he was having, said his long-time coach Frank Carroll.

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He made a big impression on 1979 World pairs champion Tai Babilonia, too. The two grew up in the same area and occa-sionally shared ice time.

“He was like a bright light,” Babilonia explained. “He was 11 or 12 at the time, and he was just running around, wild and play-ing tricks on everyone. But once he got on the ice, it was like, ‘This guy had it.’ Then he turned into a great competitor and he was great when he toured. He had everything, like Scott Hamilton.”

Carroll guided Bowman to the junior U.S. men’s title in 1983, followed by a World Junior Championship title that same year. The medals started coming at the U.S. Championships a few short years later, despite Bowman’s lack of commitment to

training. What Carroll and others thought was teenage experi-mentation with marijuana grew into a full-blown drug addiction.

Carroll said Bowman would disappear for weeks at a time. Carroll and Bowman’s parents were always in rescue mode, especial-ly for one pivotal year. “We just dragged him from a situation where

he wasn’t living at home and was doing drugs,” Carroll remembered. “He wasn’t going to even try for the [1988] Olympics.”

After a stay at the famous Betty Ford Center, Bowman made the U.S. Olympic team and placed seventh in Calgary.

In 1989 Bowman claimed his first of two U.S. titles. Also that year, Bowman notched the biggest accomplishment of his career at the World Championships in Paris, France, where he placed second.

“After the ‘Battle of the Brians,’ there were [other] cham-pions waiting to step out of the shadows,” Bowman said. “Kurt Browning, Viktor Petrenko and I were in the mix.”

Bowman said he considered Browning, in particular, to be a threat. At the 1989 Worlds, Bowman and Browning skated what

Bowman called “flawless” programs, with Browning tak-ing the gold.

Bowman felt he deserved gold, and he blamed pol-itics. “I had come to the stark realiza-tion after 1989 that I was starting to be seriously chal-lenged by a skater

who fit more the technical mold of the champion male skater,” Bowman said. “I knew after the politics of 1989 I would have to reinvent myself.”

SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK ’N’ ROLLBowman drew inspiration from many sources. “I was looking at John McEnroe, the Los Angeles music scene [and] took on a kind of bad boy kind of image with bands like Mötley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses,” Bowman said. “I was going to take that womanizing, hard-drinking, sexy, raw, male macho image to skating.”

Bowman continued to miss lessons and practice, and his coach and parents were certain Bowman was using drugs again. Carroll recalled one episode when Bowman was scheduled to compete at Skate America, but hadn’t been to the rink in weeks. Carroll called U.S. Figure Skating officials and told them there might be a problem. They sent a judge to California to watch Bowman run through his program.

“I thought, ‘This is going to be hilarious, he won’t even be able to get through the program,’” Carroll recalled. “I said, ‘All right, Chris, let’s do your program,’ and I put on the music and he skated perfectly, landing the triple Axel.

“The judge said, ‘You know, Frank, I don’t see much of a problem here.’

“That was the point. You couldn’t see the problem,” Carroll asserted. “The problem was hidden under layers of ability and being an actor and being able to keep that side hidden. I wish I had had enough guts to say he’s a drug addict.”

While Carroll and Bowman’s parents kept his problems discreetly out of the press, Bowman didn’t care about dam-age control. He said he’d turn down interviews with Sports Illustrated and Time magazines, and instead talk to reporters with Hustler and Penthouse. He drove a Harley and got some tattoos — including one on his bicep that read, “Nobody’s Perfect.”

Bowman skated to hard rock music and doled out sex advice as a guest host on an L.A. radio talk show. He dated actresses — some of whom worked in the adult film industry — and kept what some would consider dangerous company, spending time with members of well-known biker gangs.

“I was known as the guy who throws out the hotel keys to the pretty girls. I did everything I could possibly do, like spend-ing time in strip clubs,” Bowman recalled. “I put up my fan club address in strip club bathrooms. I would get fan mail from convicts in prison and hookers.”

In 1990 Bowman claimed the bronze medal at the World Championships in Halifax with a program that Bowman said he improvised, much to his coach’s frustration.

Carroll said when other coaches complimented him on Bowman’s performance, he was secretly fuming. “He was second in the world not doing what normal people would do with training,” Carroll said. “He was third in the world in Halifax and that was the end for me. He was able to be on the podium with all his problems.”

What others viewed as problems, Bowman viewed as assets. “I am who I am, no holds barred,” Bowman said. “What you see is what you get. In my case, I was the real deal.”

A DANGEROUS ROAD“I created this persona, but the media definitely threw gasoline on it,” Bowman recalled. “It got to a point where it was out of con-trol. I started believing my own press and it got dangerous.”

Bowman said he sometimes smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and eventually began spending hundreds of dollars a day on cocaine.

Bowman said he never skated while high. “I never competed under the influence. I was terrified of that,” he said.

His fear, however, seemed to be more a fear of getting caught than a fear of injuring himself or other skaters. Bowman admitted that he was a master of deceit and manipulation when it came to avoiding a positive drug test.

“I was very conscientious of the time frame when I would most likely be tested,” Bowman said. “I knew exactly how long a drug was in my system before I needed to stop for testing. I never failed a test.”

Bowman appeared to be in peak physical condition — slen-der yet muscular — and his good looks never let on that there was a problem.

“He was fantastically handsome,” Carroll said. “I understand people looking on television at a distance [and] he was this hand-

some and wonderful and charming man. He was handsome and healthy and they had no idea what was going on.”

Bowman’s behavior began to take its toll on Carroll emotion-ally, and Carroll finally ended his relationship with Bowman.

“It was a very unhappy time for me. You have no idea how painful it was for me when I was trying to keep him skating and keep his nose clean and keep people from knowing his problem,” Carroll said. “I used to get hate mail about what a terrible person I was and how cruel and not understanding I was, and I was basi-cally trying to get him to remember his choreography and keep him on his feet, knowing how his mind was distracted.”

After the breakup, Bowman worked with Ellen Burka and Toller Cranston in Toronto.

Carroll recalled a funny story from that time period. “At a press conference in Orlando with Toller Cranston and Ellen Burka, some-body said, ‘Chris, we have a comment that Toller Cranston said you are the most difficult and undisciplined student he’s ever had.’ Chris responded, ‘What a terrible thing for Ellen to say about Toller.’ And of course everyone lost it.”

Bowman returned to California and then took John Nicks as a coach. Bowman, though still using drugs, said he felt reinvigo-rated about skating as he prepared for the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville, France.

He had some concerns, because American skater Todd Eldredge had started to beat him.

“There was some concern that my status and placements were starting to slip,” Bowman remembered. “I had to formulate a new plan after being beaten by Todd.”

Bowman’s old foes were still around, too, including Petrenko and Browning. He believed he could beat them and win the gold

at the Olympic Games. “My agent was dreaming of the crazy money we could make,” Bowman said. “Sugar plum fairies and 15-percent commissions were dancing in his head.”

Bowman finished seventh in the short program after missing his triple Axel combination. He fared better in the long program, but still had two mistakes. Bowman finished the Games in fourth. Petrenko claimed gold.

That was Bowman’s final Olympic Games. He competed at Worlds in 1992 and also finished fourth. He then spent a year headlining Ice Capades.

Without the demands of amateur competition and its drug

“I am who I am, no holds barred. What you see is what you get. In my case, I was the real deal.” — Christopher Bowman

“Bowman the Showman” always gave the audience an entertaining perfor-mance, whether in com-petition or on tour.

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Paul Wylie and Christopher Bowman have some fun at a party at Wylie’s home on Martha’s Vineyard a day before his wedding in 1999.

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Christopher Bowman is flanked by his groomsmen Brian Boitano (left) and Paul Wylie on his wedding day in 1996.

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tests, Bowman said he was using drugs nonstop. His health declined. The drugs wrecked his finances, and his desire to settle down and start a family clashed with his drug use. Several attempts at drug and alcohol rehabilitation failed.

“It’s the same old story. You go because your girlfriend’s unhappy, or because your agent wants you to,” Bowman said. “You go for the wrong reasons rather than helping yourself. You do it for everyone else. That’s just all wrong.”

FAMILY LIFE Bowman did find sobriety for several years. He met his future wife, Annette, while coaching in Florida, and they married on Aug. 31, 1996, a year after their first date. “For the first six and a half to seven years of our marriage it was sheer bliss,” Annette Bowman said. “He was doing very well. He had the commentator job. He was a great dad.”

She said he always made her feel special. “Let’s put it this way: Five years into our marriage I was still getting flowers three times a week,” Annette Bowman said. “He cooked dinner every day. As far as Bianca, he was a child at heart. They played hide-and-go-seek for three to four hours a day.”

In the final year of their marriage, the signs of addiction resurfaced, but Annette Bowman was not sure why her husband started using again. “I knew addiction was something he battled with every day, [but] there were never any issues until the very last year,” she said. “My primary goal was to get him back in rehab.”

At first, he agreed, but then was hesitant to admit he had a problem.

“Push came to shove and that was the only option that I was directed towards by the guidance counselors — the tough love approach,” his former wife said. “Our divorce was by no means for a lack of love.”

Bowman’s troubles continued after his marriage ended. In 2005, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor gun possession charge stemming from an incident in which he aimed a firearm at his business partner, April Freeman. He was sentenced to 18 months probation and to community service.

Freeman, who recently said she was Bowman’s fiancée in pub-lished reports, did not respond to IFS’s requests for an interview.

After the incident with Freeman, Bowman worked with a psychiatrist to find out why, as he put it, he was “self-medicating.” At the time of the 2007 interview with IFS, he admitted he still had some work to do. He did not want to be specific about what his demons were.

Bowman was attempting to get his career back on track. He

decided to give up his 10-year coaching career and focus more on the Hollywood life he gave up for skating. “I am getting back to my roots,” he said.

At the time Bowman said he had a small role in an upcoming Brian J. De Palma feature film called “Down and Distance,” and he was pitching a variety show, appropriately named “The Showman Show,” to TV networks. He also said he had an autobiography and a documentary in the works.

Babilonia said Bowman had expressed an interest in American reality TV. He tried to reach her through a friend about appear-ing on “Celebrity Fit Club.” She gave the friend her number, but Bowman never called her.

“It was like he was trying but those demons just got the best of him,” Babilonia explained.

According to published reports, at the time of his death Bowman was on probation for a theft that occurred in November 2007.

Even though he never won an Olympic medal, Bowman looked back with pride on his two appearances at the Olympic Games. “One good thing I can always look back on is that even though I went through the trials, tribulations and the controver-sies of the skating world, I was always very proud of my Olympic accomplishments,” he said.

A statement from U.S. Figure Skating shortly after Bowman’s death celebrated his successes, but acknowledged his troubles. “‘Bowman the Showman’ says it all,” said Mitch Moyer, U.S. Figure Skating senior director of athlete high performance. “When I think of Christopher, I smile. I think of all the Christopher Bowman sto-ries and performances. He loved to be on stage both on and off the ice ... and then I frown. It is sad that he struggled with balancing his life and that he passed away so young. Christopher touched so many lives and put smiles on all our faces.”

A CELEBRATION OF LIFEBowman’s funeral was held at the church he attended as a child, St. Cyril’s, where some of the skating world’s most famous stars (including Babilonia, Fratianne, Brian Boitano and Randy Gardner) came to pay their respects.

“Once again he packed the house. He sold it out. He sold that church out,” Babilonia said. “Of course everyone was crying.

“Then when Frank went up, and it was just ...” Babilonia’s voice trailed off. “Frank had all these stories, so he basically brought Christopher up [there].”

Carroll gave the eulogy, choosing to remember the happy and carefree child he coached. “When someone passes like Christopher, you think of the good times and all the hilarity,” rem-inisced Carroll. “Even though he was naughty, everything he did was extremely funny. You would die laughing at everything. That’s how I am thinking of him — how witty he was and how smart he was and how he would have a comeback about anything.”

Fratianne also spoke at the funeral and sat with Bowman’s fam-ily at the front of the church. “He was like a little brother to me,” she told IFS. “He was always so charming, always the center of attention and the life of the party. I was blessed to have him in my life.”

At the time of Bowman’s death, Carroll and Bowman were still estranged. “You can’t spend 18 years of life with somebody and not love them,” Carroll told IFS. “I have a lot of love for Christopher and he had a lot of love for me.”

Bowman’s for-mer wife wants people to understand that despite his struggles, he was loved and will be missed. “I want everybody to remem-ber Christopher as the genuine, fun-loving, bighearted soul that he was,” she said. “That is who Christopher was.

He had some demons to battle and he lost the battle, period. It’s time for him to lay in peace.”

One of Bowman’s last comments perhaps best sums up the way he looked at his own life.

“I’ve grown old, gotten married, had a child. I’m living the life God gave me,” he said. “The party is long over.” — Susan Wessling contributed to this report.

“I want everybody to remember Christopher as the genuine, fun-loving, bighearted soul that he was.” — Annette Bowman

Christopher and Annette Bowman take their only child, Bianca, skating for the first time in 1999 at the Garden City Civic Ice Arena in Michigan.

The two-time U.S. champion and his daughter were all smiles in the church on the 2002 wedding day of her godfather. She was a flower girl in the ceremony held in Detroit.

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Christopher Bowman caught up with Brian Boitano at a dinner party at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City where Bowman did the radio commentary.

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