It was supposed to be an opportunity of a lifetime for Liam Dougherty, learning from a man who had trained renowned figure skating stars. Instead, it turned into two years filled with alleged death threats and more, as he detailed in an interview on Lori Ward’s Broken Ice.

Liam Dougherty was seven years old when his mother enrolled him in figure skating. She simply did it so that her son could learn how to skate, and so, few expected him to turn professional. At 13, he moved to Montreal to train with renowned coach Paul Wirtz. It was a decision that reshaped a promising career.

“He (Paul Wirtz) would threaten us with death,” Dougherty said in his sitdown on Broken Ice. “You better land this or else I’m going to kill you.

“He’s throwing water bottles, skate guards, CD cases — anything he can grab. I didn’t think he was going to murder us, but I wasn’t entirely sure what he would do.”

This wasn’t the first time it had allegedly happened, nor would it be the last. In fact, Liam Dougherty and Wirtz’s time together even reportedly started with a power play. Wirtz simply handed him 30 minutes to decide whether to leave his life behind and move across the country or remain in Yukon.

With opportunities limited in his hometown, Dougherty had no choice but to leave, and he believed he was on his way to a big opportunity. However, things didn’t quite go according to plan. Instead, it began with what the now-retired ice-dancer has described as intense alleged abuse. According to Liam Dougherty, Wirtz typically began their mornings by yelling “at us”.

“And he would go around one by one, most days, it would change sometimes, and he’d go around one by one and say what was wrong with everybody,” Dougherty revealed.

“‘You, you’re fat. You, your thighs are too big. You, you can’t do your jumps. You, you two-foot your jumps. You’re stupid. You’re ugly.’”

He wasn’t the only one being targeted, with Wirtz allegedly pointing to every skater there. And as per Dougherty, he didn’t spare anyone, even targeting figure skaters as young as six years old. One of his worst moments was in the late 1990s, on a day he arrived late. For undisclosed reasons, Liam Dougherty was last to arrive at the rink, and that made him Wirtz’s target for the day.

“He’s in the middle of screaming at everybody, but then he turns at me, and then he starts a long 20-minute scream directed at me,” Dougherty explained. “In the middle of it, he tells me ‘if you quit now, you’re gonna let down your mother, your skating club, your f*****g territory’ and he screams this at me.

“And unfortunately, I think that was the most singularly important thing that happened to me. I think that changed my perspective, I think I couldn’t imagine letting down my entire territory. And I think I essentially skated for the next decade, basically because of that.”

Two years later, Dougherty would leave Wirtz’s coaching and move on to other coaches. But the abuse he suffered before likely plagued the now 42-year-old as he transitioned from partner to partner, skating with three over the course of his career. That included an 18-month spell during which he had none.

But he enjoyed periods of success with Melissa Piperno and Terra Findlay. In fact, he even finished fifth at the 2007 Canadian Championships, albeit with Mylene Girard as his partner.

The two finished third in the free-dance section, scoring 172.28 points, finishing just behind fourth-place Crone/Poirier, who scored 172.95. However, by the end of that season, Liam Dougherty retired as a figure skater, turning his mind towards other aspects of his life.

Liam Dougherty opens up on the lack of help he got

Despite once setting a goal of making the 2010 Olympics, Liam Dougherty retired two years before the Vancouver Games. He believed that it was the best decision for him at the time, especially given the severe PTSD and other mental health issues he was going through after years of alleged abuse, and more had taken their toll on him.

He believed that leaving the sport would help him adjust, along with help from the Canadian figure skating community. Instead, the system abandoned him, leaving Liam Dougherty to fend for himself.

“You quit, and you’re no longer serving any purpose for them,” Dougherty described. “And if you’re critical, well, now you’re really in trouble. There was absolutely no help when I quit skating, and I desperately needed it then.”

Dougherty has since admitted that the years following his retirement were bad as he struggled to cope with depression, mental health struggles, and more. During a 2020 race for public office, the then 36-year-old revealed that he was diagnosed with PTSD after his ice-dancing career ended. It became one of the core principles on which he based his campaign for public office ‌.

However, Liam Dougherty ultimately did not run for Ward 7 in the City of Prince Albert. Even then, he was stunned that a career as an ice-dancer led to his serious mental health issues.

For Dougherty, speaking publicly about those experiences is no longer about revisiting the past. However, his allegations have also added to the growing conversation around athlete welfare.