Bowman Rumors Put on Ice : Figure skating: U.S. association says it has no evidence that the former national champion has been involved with drugs.

Exasperated by its role as a rumor hot line since former national champion Christopher Bowman reportedly was mugged in October at Toronto, the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. released a statement Thursday, saying it has no evidence that the flamboyant skater has ever been involved with drugs.

The association’s president, Franklin Nelson of Oakland, said the sport’s national governing body “has no basis at this time to believe that Mr. Bowman is engaging in any type of activity which would adversely affect his eligibility to compete. The USFSA is concerned about the allegations which have been made regarding Mr. Bowman and has discussed these matters with him.”

Nelson read the statement at the conclusion of a news conference at the Orlando Arena, where Bowman will begin competition today. With two-time defending champion Todd Eldredge’s withdrawal Thursday because of a back injury, Bowman, the runner-up last year, becomes a leading candidate to regain the title he won in 1989 and earn one of three men’s berths on the U.S. team for next month’s Winter Olympics at Albertville, France.

During the news conference, Bowman, who describes himself as “Hans Brinker from Hell,” was asked to respond to drug rumors related to the incident at Toronto. The skater, who did not report the crime to police, said he was mugged by two men and a woman near the house where he lived at the time. He suffered an injury to the orbital bone underneath his right eye and underwent plastic surgery.

A few weeks later, Bowman, who is from Van Nuys, left his two Canadian coaches and returned to Southern California, where he has been training since early December with Coach John Nicks at Costa Mesa’s Ice Capades Chalet.

Before Bowman, 24, could answer the question about the rumors Thursday, Nicks interrupted and said that the skater agreed when he moved to Costa Mesa to participate in a drug-testing program the coach requires for all of his students 16 or older.

Nicks said that he has an arrangement with a laboratory in Glendale to test for performance-enhancing substances as well as street drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. When asked about Bowman’s tests, Nicks said that he could not answer because of a confidentiality agreement he has with his skaters.

But he asked Nelson, who attended the news conference, to reveal results of numerous tests administered to Bowman in the past by the USFSA, International Skating Union, U.S. Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee.

“Christopher, as are all athletes, is subjected to doping control,” Nelson said. “Christopher has never failed any of the tests.”

After the news conference, Nelson told reporters that the USFSA office at Colorado Springs, Colo., has been besieged by telephone calls in recent weeks from people within the sport and reporters who inquired about the rumors.

Nelson said he discussed the rumors by telephone with Bowman.

“He didn’t know what all the fuss was about,” Nelson said.

He also said that he had asked Bowman if he needed help for a drug problem.

“His reaction was that he’d take it under advisement,” Nelson said.

Bowman denied that the subject of rehabilitation was addressed, saying that Nelson called only to discuss the USFSA’s statement.

“None of it seemed to make a lot of sense to me,” Bowman said. “I know Franklin’s intentions are very good, but things might have been mixed up or misunderstood.”

Even Bowman’s critics concede that he has as much talent as any other skater in the world, but there have been doubts in recent years that he would fulfill his potential because of undisciplined training habits and a hedonistic lifestyle, reports of which he said Thursday have been exaggerated.

“Part of that, I blame myself for,” he said. “I’ve worked very hard to be different from the average skater. For the most part, that has been positive. It separates you from the pack, and you are singled out. The flip side is that you are under scrutiny.”

Bowman has succeeded beyond all expectations in differentiating himself from other skaters. Paul Wylie, who is competing here, recalled this week his experience as Bowman’s roommate during the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary.

“It was like living with somebody who works the graveyard shift and then comes home at 7 a.m. after spending a couple of hours at the bar,” he said. “I was awakened at 5 in the morning eight straight days. On the morning after the short program, he came into my room, threw on the light, danced on the bed and yelled, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam!’ ”

Bowman, who finished seventh at Calgary, was considered the heir apparent to four-time U.S. champion Brian Boitano after 1988. Bowman seemed on the right track when he won the national championship and finished second in the World Championships in 1989. But he failed to defend his national title in 1990 because of a back injury, and, despite a third-place finish in the World Championships, he split with his coach of 17 years, Frank Carroll.

Under former Canadian Olympian Toller Cranston and Ellen Burka, Bowman finished second in the nation and fifth in the world last year. Of Bowman’s decision to leave Canada, Burka recently told the Chicago Tribune: “Christopher has several personalities. One is very likable. Another is very irresponsible. Lately, his behavior has been very erratic and out of control.”

Bowman has his own version of the events that led to his return to Southern California, but his response to Burka probably can be summed up in the two words that accompany the tattoo on his left shoulder of a smirking red devil with horns and a pitchfork:

“Nobody’s Perfect.”