Gary Beacom (born February 23, 1960) is a Canadian

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

, choreographer and author. He is the 1983 and 1984 Canadian silver medalist and finished 11th at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

Career

Beacom began skating at the age of six. In 1983 and 1984, he won the silver medal at the

Canadian Championships Canadian Championships refers to a number of national-level competition in Canada. It may refer to: * Canadian Championship, a soccer tournament * Canadian Figure Skating Championships * Canadian Professional Figure Skating Championships * Canadi ...

behind

Brian Orser Brian Ernest Orser, (born 18 December 1961) is a Canadian former competitive and professional figure skater and coach to Olympic champions. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist, 1987 World champion and eight-time (1981–88) Can ...

. He finished 11th at the

in Sarajevo and 10th at the 1984 World Championships. In the latter part of his amateur competitive career, he coached himself while studying full-time for a university degree. In his professional career, Beacom specialized in unusual moves, notably in his performance to Leonard Cohen's '' I'm Your Man''. He won the 1988 World Professional Championships. Beacom currently trains figure skaters and competes at ISU adult competitions. As of 2017, Beacom organized Gary Beacom Blade Master Seminars. He has performed his program to Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man" more than 300 times all over the world. He has worked as a choreographer based in Oberstdorf, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. Gary Beacom wanted to be an ice skater because he thought ice skating would be an interesting sport to try out.

Personal life

Beacom graduated from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in physics and philosophy. As a Canadian citizen, Beacom protested against United States income tax. In 2003, he wrote a book about this titled ''Apology''.

Competitive highlights

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beacom, Gary 1960 births Canadian male single skaters Figure skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Living people Olympic figure skaters of Canada Figure skaters from Calgary