Paul Wirtz (May 3, 1958 - April 6, 2006) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

figure skating 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 ...

coach."A teacher to the end"
. ''

Ottawa Sun The ''Ottawa Sun'' is a daily newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It began publication in 1983 as the ''Ottawa Sunday Herald'', until it was acquired by (then) Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988. In Apri ...

'', April 9, 2006. Originally from

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, he was the brother of

Kris Wirtz Kris Wirtz (born December 12, 1969) is a Canadian former pair skater. With Kristy Sargeant, he is the 1999 Four Continents silver medallist, the 1994 Skate Canada International champion, and a two-time Canadian national champion. The pair com ...

and the uncle of

Sean Wirtz Sean Wirtz (also Sean Kelly and Sean Kelly-Wirtz; born October 31, 1979, in Marathon, Ontario) is a Canadian figure skater who competed in pair skating and single skating. He teamed up with Elizabeth Putnam in the summer of 2002. They are the ...

. A coach of pairs skaters, athletes he worked with included Valérie Marcoux,

Craig Buntin Craig Buntin (born May 27, 1980) is a Canadian former pair skater. He is the co-founder and CEO of Sportlogiq, an AI-powered sports analytics company based in Montreal, Quebec. With former partner Meagan Duhamel, he is the 2009 Canadian silver ...

, Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Putnam, Sean Wirtz,

Kristy Sargeant Kristy Lee Sargeant-Wirtz (born January 24, 1974) is a Canadian former pair skater. With Kris Wirtz, she is the 1999 Four Continents silver medallist, the 1994 Skate Canada International champion, and a two-time Canadian national champion. The ...

, Kris Wirtz,

Dylan Moscovitch Dylan David Moscovitch (born 23 September 1984) is a retired Canadian pair skater. He competed with Liubov Ilyushechkina from 2014 to 2018. They were the 2017 Four Continents bronze medalists, two-time bronze medalists on the Grand Prix series ...

Tanith Belbin Tanith Jessica Louise Belbin (born July 11, 1984) is a Canadian-American ice dancer and Olympic program host for NBC Sports. Though born in Canada, she holds dual citizenship and has competed for the United States since she began skating with Be ...

and

Eric Radford Eric Radford (born January 27, 1985) is a Canadian Pair skating, pair skater. With former partner Meagan Duhamel, he is a two-time world champion (2015 World Figure Skating Championships, 2015, 2016 World Figure Skating Championships, 2016), a Fig ...

."Eric Radford: Olympic figure skater, medal-winning family man. And gay."
''

Outsports ''Outsports'' is a sports news website concerned with LGBT issues and personalities in amateur and professional sports. The company was founded in 1999 by Cyd Zeigler, Jr. and Jim Buzinski. ''The Outsports Revolution'' (Alyson Publications), by ...

'', December 4, 2014. He died on April 6, 2006 at age 47 from

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include lymphadenopathy, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight los ...

. At the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

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and the 2014 World Championships, Radford and

Meagan Duhamel Meagan Duhamel (born December 8, 1985) is a Canadian pair skater. With partner Eric Radford, she is a two-time world champion (2015, 2016), a 2018 Olympic gold medallist in the team event, a 2014 Olympic silver medallist in the team event, a 2 ...

performed to a piece of music "Tribute" that Radford had personally composed as a tribute to Wirtz."Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel pay tribute to late coach"
''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Pos ...

'', October 24, 2013. Wirtz was openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. When Radford came out as gay in 2014, he credited Wirtz as an important influence on his acceptance of his own sexuality: "Paul was the first gay person I ever saw in real life. The gay people on TV were always very flamboyant, and until I met Paul I didn't realize you could be gay and just be normal. He was the first person I saw who was like that, gay and just normal. He made me realize I didn't have to be afraid of it."

References

1958 births 2006 deaths Canadian male figure skaters Canadian figure skating coaches Deaths from non-Hodgkin lymphoma Canadian LGBT sportspeople Gay sportsmen People from Thunder Bay District Deaths from cancer in Ontario 20th-century LGBT people {{Canada-figure-skating-bio-stub