The ""Other" Skating - Figure Skating

[number1fan]

mtnme said:

lexi said:

Hi ladies,
It's a terrible expression I know, but one I hear and use. Usually, whenever someone is trying desparately to stop from laughing they'll picture dead kittens in their mind to get themselves back to a serious mind frame. I don't know if that clarifies things any better.

Thanks Lexi for the clarification-

mmmmm... it must be a 'Newfie' thing....

And on that note- I give you:

www.newfie.com/

I especially like the 'screech' story....

what a riot mtnme!!! newfie is just a hop, skip and a jump away from lexi !

sorry lex...i can't do the dead kittens thingy

[jennaceeta25]

lexi said:

Hi ladies,
It's a terrible expression I know, but one I hear and use. Usually, whenever someone is trying desparately to stop from laughing they'll picture dead kittens in their mind to get themselves back to a serious mind frame. I don't know if that clarifies things any better.

Ah, now it all makes sense.

Thanks for clarifing.

[lexi]

For you die-hard figure skating fans, this is a site I often go to that always has some interesting gossip about our favorites.

www.figureskatingmystery.com/
(scroll down from the top to some articles)

[kirkland]

Thanks Lexi,

At first glance I don't quite get the site, is it like fan fiction?

[lexi]

kirkland said:

Thanks Lexi,

At first glance I don't quite get the site, is it like fan fiction?

Hi Kirkland - no, it's real stuff. Apparently she's a mystery writer who writes fiction about the skating world in her books, but her 'gossip' is the real deal.

It's always a very interesting read. Some time ago she had the scoop of Plushenko's divorce, etc. and she'll often have stuff on Yagudin and others that comes out a bit later in the news. Right now she's been dead on about Navka's affair on Alexandra Zhulin.

[kirkland]

Not into fan fiction (with the exception of being a "hoper"). She states at the top of the page that her column will not be figure skating exclusive anylonger. Wonder if she will change the name of the page.

I took some time and read a bit. Very interesting column on Katia and Ilia. This page must have been the source of Yagudin's ex GF's snarky comments.

Lots of stuff about Navka, but I don't follow them. This is Zhulin's wife? And who is she cheating on him with? Sounds juicy.

[lexi]

kirkland said:

Not into fan fiction (with the exception of being a "hoper"). She states at the top of the page that her column will not be figure skating exclusive anylonger. Wonder if she will change the name of the page.

I took some time and read a bit. Very interesting column on Katia and Ilia. This page must have been the source of Yagudin's ex GF's snarky comments.

Lots of stuff about Navka, but I don't follow them. This is Zhulin's wife? And who is she cheating on him with? Sounds juicy.

You hit the nail on the head - it's always juicy stuff.

It was here that I first read about Steven Cousins and Elena...and got the dirty stuff on Plushenko's divorce. And, yes, I believe this is where Yags former girlfriend aired her dirty laundry. As we know, it all came out in the news later.

Here's some Plush/Yagudin stuff from her archives:
www.figureskatingmystery.com/2007/11/evgeny-plushchenko-i-pay-with-my.html

Yes, Alexander Zhulin is Navka's husband, but she took part in an ice show (ala Lloyd and Kristy) and she fell in love with her partner, a popular, married Russian actor - Marat Basharov. He left his wife and she left Zhulin. I don't know a thing about Marat, but its all juicy nonetheless. Oh and champions Averbuch and Lobacheva have just divorced too.

[mrsrobinson]

Saw this on MSN this a.m.

Bowman dead at 40; drug overdose suspectedAssociated Press
Updated: January 11, 2008, 6:26 AM EST 55 comments RSS digg blog email print LOS ANGELES (AP) - U.S figure skating champion Christopher Bowman pleased fans and fellow skaters with his flair on the ice. But he was also known for his off-the-ice struggles with drugs and alcohol and other personal problems.

Christopher Bowman (1967-2008)


Christopher Bowman, a former U.S. figure skating champion, was found dead Thursday at 40. Follow his career in photos.



Now the 40-year-old former skating champ known as "Bowman the Showman" has been found dead at a budget hotel in the San Fernando Valley, and authorities say a drug overdose could be to blame.

Bowman was pronounced dead Thursday at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale, who confirmed the death was being investigated as a possible drug overdose, but wasn't immediately able to provide more details. An autopsy was planned for this weekend, he said.

Bowman's body was found by a friend Thursday morning at a Budget Inn in the North Hills area, police Sgt. Francisca Wheeling said.

A desk clerk who answered the phone at the hotel late Thursday declined comment.

"He just passed away in his sleep," Bowman's mother, Joyce, told the Detroit Free Press. "His friend told me that he was fine. He just went to bed and didn't wake up."

The friend who found Bowman told police the former skating champion might have been drinking the night before his death, Wheeling said.

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating's bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented, with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the U.S. men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.

He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992.


"If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one," Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, told the Chicago Tribune. "He had natural charisma, natural athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and he always seemed so relaxed about it."

But as talented as he was on the ice, Bowman could be just as big a challenge off it. He bounced from coach to coach long before it became fashionable - he once won Skate America when he was in-between coaches - and freely admitted that practice was something that just didn't interest him much.

"Each and every competition that I train for, prepare for, is always a personal challenge for me because, as we all know, the training and discipline between each event is very difficult for me," Bowman said in 1992.

He battled drug problems, and underwent treatment at least twice - once before the 1988 Olympics and then again after the Albertville Games in 1992.

Canadian skater Toller Cranston, who coached Bowman, described the American skater's debauched behavior during the period they shared Cranston's Toronto home in the 1997 book, "Zero Tollerance." Drug dealers and prostitutes rang Cranston's doorbell at all hours in search of Bowman, Cranston wrote.


Bowman won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships and competed in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, finishing 7th in '88 and 4th in '92. (Scott Halleran/Allsport / Getty Images)

Bowman's run-ins with the law included a no contest plea in November 2004 to two misdemeanors involving having a gun while drunk in Rochester Hills, Mich.

In 1993, while skating with the Ice Capades, he was beaten at a hotel in a seedy neighborhood in Pittsburgh, according to a police report.

Richard Callaghan, coach of Bowman's longtime rival, Todd Eldredge, said he was saddened to learn of Bowman's death.

"When Todd told me, I said, 'What a shame,"' Callaghan told the Free Press. "Christopher was such a nice person. Even though he was troubled, he was very genuine and friendly.

"There was a great rivalry between Christopher and Todd because they were so opposite. Christopher was always on; he was the star when it came to doing any competitions. Most of us didn't know how he did it, but he did."

Born in Hollywood, on March 30, 1967, Bowman had a part in the TV series "Little House on the Prairie" for one season and appeared in dozens of commercials. He got into coaching after his skating career was finished, and the Free Press said he had lived in the Detroit area from 1995 until last February.

Recently, Bowman had returned to acting. He had a role as an assistant coach in the upcoming Brian De Palma-directed movie "Down and Distance" starring Gary Busey.

Bowman had a daughter with his former wife, Annette Bowman, according to the Free Press.

[Lori Girl Next Door]

Oh - wow.

I'm really sad to hear that. I didn't follow him much after the Olympics, but I do remember him.

[mtnme]

I think we have discussed this before on the forum, but what a waste of God Given talent. I was shocked to open up my internet browser to that this morning. Heartbreaking that he never did get his act together, even in adulthood.

Such a shame...

[number1fan]

such a natural talent...he could've achieved so much more .

[lexi]

How sad is it that this news didn't surprise me a bit? He's been fighting demons for a long time and it was just a matter of when. It's quite flattering that the likes of Brian Boitano considers him one of the top 3 talents in skating. I don't think he's blowing smoke either. The interesting part is that Chris was talented...he just didn't care enough. I don't think he had the passion for skating the others had and obviously not the discipline. He despised practice. It's uncanny how amazing he could be giving only half the effort. He was a Hollywood boy - born and raised - and we're all too well aware of the excess there and how it always ends.

RIP Chris.

youtube.com/watch?v=lwoSFxHZRx4

[daisymomma]

I was saddened to read that in the paper I was just wondering what he was doing the other day.He will be missed.

[Rhiannon]

So sad. I followed Christopher Bowman's career in his younger days and he was always a joy to watch and he seemed like the risk taker and party boy. I have good memories of Christopher Bowman on the ice. I'm just so saddened by this I can't even begin to tell you all. No emoticon can show how I feel. Peace to his family.

[kirkland]

Very sad.

Is everyone also aware that Dorothy Hamill has had to pull out of skating events with Brian Boitana for breast cancer treatment?