LOS ANGELES, Jan 11: Christopher Bowman, the former US figure skating champion dubbed ‘Bowman the Showman’ for his flair on ice, has died of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40.

Bowman was pronounced dead at 12:06pm local time Thursday, said Coroner’s Lt. Joe Bale, who wasn’t able to provide more details immediately.

Bowman’s body was found at a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend, Bale said.

“He just passed away in his sleep,” Bowman’s mother Joyce, told the Detroit Free Press, which first reported his death.

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 US men’s figure skating titles in 1989 and ‘92, and was runner-up in ‘87 and ‘91.

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.

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