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 Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...

coach."A teacher to the end"
. '' Ottawa Sun'', 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 di ...

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 C ...

, he was the brother of Kris Wirtz 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 Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (I ...

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

Valérie Marcoux Valérie Marcoux (born April 1, 1980 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian former pair skater. With partner Craig Buntin, she is a three-time Canadian national champion. Prior to teaming up with Buntin in 2002, she skated with Bruno Marcotte. 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 m ...

, Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Putnam, Sean Wirtz, Kristy Sargeant, 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 and Eric Radford."Eric Radford: Olympic figure skater, medal-winning family man. And gay."
''

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

'', 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 enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tiredness. ...

. At the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (russian: Сочи 2014), was an international ...

in Sochi,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

and the 2014 World Championships, Radford and Meagan Duhamel 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 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 Postmedia Place i ...

'', October 24, 2013. Wirtz was openly gay. 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