Bowman Gets to Work, Wins Men’s Skating Title

For years, Christopher Bowman has been the most talked-about man in figure skating. On Sunday at the Baltimore Arena, it was for all the right reasons.

Although he is still recovering from a severe leg injury suffered in December, Bowman, 21, of Van Nuys, fought through the fatigue in a strenuous 4 1/2-minute long program to win the men’s title at the U.S. figure skating championships.

Bowman finished first in the long program, which accounts for 50% of the final score, and moved from second to first in the overall standings ahead of Daniel Doran, 22, of Denver.

But second place is a breakthrough for Doran, who finished third in 1986 and fourth in 1987 and 1988. He and Bowman will represent the United States next month at Paris in the world championships.

Not going is Paul Wylie, 24, of Denver, who was supposed to duel Bowman for the championship. But Wylie, who, like Bowman, was on the Olympic team, finished sixth in the compulsory figures Thursday and fourth in the original program and could rise no higher than third overall after his second-place finish in the long program.

Wylie received the only standing ovation of the afternoon from the crowd of 8,358. At least one of the nine judges shared the fans’ enthusiasm, awarding Wylie a perfect score of 6.0, the first and last one of the championships, for his style and composition. If Wylie’s routine had been more technically difficult, he might have won the long program and moved into second place ahead of Doran, who was fifth in the long program.

Wylie, who was discouraged enough to consider retirement last week, said Sunday that he had decided to remain in the sport.

“I almost applauded when Paul said he wanted to continue,” said Frank Carroll, who coaches Bowman in Burbank. “If Paul had won the long program today, I wouldn’t have had difficulty reconciling that.”

Wylie is extremely popular within the figure skating community, a polite, well-spoken Harvard junior who sometimes sings hymns to himself to calm his nerves.

Don’t invite Wylie and Bowman to the same party. It’s not that they aren’t friends; they are. It’s that Bowman prefers life on the wild side.

Carroll, who has been coaching Bowman for almost 17 years, remembers the day Bowman earned his first 6.0 in the 1985 Olympic Festival at Baton Rouge, La. But he has more vivid memories of the night before.

“He had been running around with his friends in the middle of the night,” Carroll said. “The night before the long program, I took him to my hotel room. I had two beds. I told him, ‘You little turkey, you’re going to get into that bed and stay in it. If the hotel burns down, you burn down with it. I’ll send your ashes back to Van Nuys.’ ”

Stories such as that have earned Bowman a reputation as figure skating’s bad boy. But in most other sports, he might be considered quite normal for his age.

“The figure skating establishment wants people in a certain mold, very conservative, very Ivy League,” he said. “Christopher doesn’t fit that mold. He’s an individual. No matter what anyone says, he’s going to do his own thing.”

As for the critics who question his dedication, Bowman said that his triumph here vindicates him.

“Winning the national championship has been my goal since I was a little boy,” Bowman said. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but I made it. I don’t see how anybody can read that as anything but total dedication.”

Bowman said that he went to bed at 8 p.m. Saturday.

“Right,” Carroll said sarcastically.

On the ice Sunday, Bowman was a rebel without a pause. He has been known in the past more as a performer than an athlete, hence the nickname “Bowman the Showman,” but his long program was more difficult than those skated by any of his competitors. He did seven triple jumps, including the most demanding one of them all, a 3 1/2-revolution triple axel. He also did the most demanding combination, a triple lutz-triple toe.

In contrast, Wylie didn’t do a triple axel, even though he had one planned, and his combination was a triple lutz into a double toe, which he didn’t land cleanly.

“I can kick myself for the rest of the year for that,” Wylie said of his decision to turn his triple axel into a single.

Bowman was far from perfect. That might have had something to do with his conditioning. He suffered a deep cut in his left shin during an exhibition in early December and was wearing a cast until Jan. 2.

“The doctor told him the injury would keep him out of the nationals,” Carroll said. “Christopher said, ‘The hell it will.’ ”

After returning to the ice, Bowman pulled a groin muscle and wasn’t able to spend as much time training as he would have liked before arriving here. By the end of his performance Sunday, he seemed to be gasping for breath. But he still hit a triple flip-double toe combination late in the program.

“Only Christopher would have been able to pull that off at the end like that,” Carroll said.

Skating Notes

Several judges told Frank Carroll that Christopher Bowman should try a more flamboyant look this year. Though Bowman is more comfortable in basic black, Carroll put him in black velvet with gold and silver lame brocade and sequins. When Bowman entered the locker room before Sunday’s performance, he dared the other skaters to laugh. “The first thing I said was, ‘Anybody who says anything, I’m going to break your neck.’ ”