Coming In 2022... The Forever Young Project


In the 1990's, "Skating" magazine's obituary columns were perpetually filled with obituaries of young men who died "after a long illness". As friends, families and partners mourned, they had to endure a parade of articles in newspapers extolling the sport's athleticism and masculinity. At best, the campaigns were tone deaf; at worst, a slap in the face to dozens of gay men connected to figure skating that were fighting for their lives after contracting a virus that few people understood and even less wanted to talk about.

Olympic medallists, World Champions, professional stars, coaches, choreographers, judges, costume designers, writers, builders, brothers, sons, partners and dear friends. Easily more than twice as many victims from the skating community than the Sabena Crash that killed the entire U.S. figure skating team in Belgium in 1961 and The Regent's Park Skating Tragedy in England in 1867...

 

Today, on World AIDS Day, we reflect upon on the incredibly talented people that the figure skating world has lost to HIV/AIDS. In 2022, Skate Guard will present its fifth full-length feature, "The Forever Young Project", celebrating their contributions to the skating world. If you would like to contribute pictures, videos or memories to this piece before it is published, please reach out as soon as possible.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on FacebookTwitterPinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.