Joseph Shaun McGill
December 24, 1961-March 23, 1992
Photo courtesy Kathleen McGill
Shaun McGill grew up in Mississauga, Ontario and started skating at the age of eight. He placed second in the novice men's event at the 1978 Canadians in Victoria, defeating a young Paul Martini. In 1979 and 1981, he won the bronze medal in the junior men's event at the Canadians. His coaches included Mrs. Ellen Burka, Louis Stong, Bruce Lennie and Guy Raffleur. He turned professional in 1983, touring with John Curry's company and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's tour. He appeared in the television special "Sleeping Beauty On Ice" and finished second in the 1987 and 1988 World Professional Championships in Jaca, Spain and the 1988 U.S. Open in Daytona Beach, Florida. He passed away at the age of thirty on March 23, 1992.
Excerpt from Susan Reed's 1993 article from "People" magazine: "'He was very calm,' recalls Regis Gagnon of skater Shaun McGill in 1989 after McGill was told he had AIDS. Gagnon, 32, a program adviser at the Ontario Ministry of Health, lived with McGill in Toronto for four years prior to McGill’s death. 'I kept informed about the latest AIDS treatments. Shaun said to me, 'Just tell me what I need to know. I'll take the pills I’m supposed to take. But don’t bother me. I've got work to do.' Gagnon claims McGill did some of his finest choreography and skating after his condition was diagnosed. 'There was an intensity, a real need to produce,' says Gagnon of his friend, who never won an Olympic medal but was regarded by his peers as one of the most creative skaters of his generation. 'He wanted to get his work out because he knew his time was finite.' McGill, who spent a lot of time traveling, was one who kept his condition secret for fear that he would not be allowed to enter the U.S., where most professional skaters find work with various ice shows. One spring day in 1991 his secret was nearly revealed. On his way to Baltimore, home base of the Next Ice Age, a professional troupe he was working with, he was slopped by U.S. immigration officials in Toronto. 'He didn’t look totally well, so they look him into a room and interrogated him [about whether he had AIDS],' says Gagnon. 'He had to tell them something so he’d be allowed to cross the border. So he told them he had cancer.' The officials told McGill that they would have to confirm his statement and asked for the name of somebody they could call. He gave them Gagnon's. Then, while the officials left him momentarily unattended, 'Shaun sneaked out of the customs office, found a phone and called to tell me what kind of cancer he’d told them he had,' says Gagnon. 'It was pretty traumatic.' Only when McGill grew too weak to skate, shortly after that incident, did he stop performing. McGill's friend Tim Murphy, a cofounder of the Next Ice Age, remembers McGill's final performance with the company. He said, 'I think this is the last time I’ll do this,' Murphy recalls. 'We had a little cry and a hug. It was the only thing I ever heard him say about how he was affected by AIDS.'"
Memories from Shaun's mother Kathleen: "To me, Shaun's great beauty came from inside. He was everything a parent could want and hope for. He showed a tremendous strength, helped me see other ways of life and not to be judgmental and showed us all what true love was. Not once did I ever hear him complain and all he asked for was laughter and smiles, not sad faces. I know I'm stronger because of him and I try to be a better person because of him. I always enjoyed watching him skate."
*Source for inclusion: "AIDS-related deaths rock the world of figure skating", Filip Bondy, The Globe and Mail, November 18, 1992
