Paul Wirtz (May 3, 1958 - April 6, 2006) was a Canadian figure skating coach.^[1] Originally from Marathon, Ontario,^[1] he was the brother of Kris Wirtz and the uncle of Sean Wirtz.^[1]

A coach of pairs skaters, athletes he worked with included Valérie Marcoux, Craig Buntin, Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Putnam, Sean Wirtz, Kristy Sargeant,^[1] Kris Wirtz,^[1] Dylan Moscovitch, Tanith Belbin^[2] and Eric Radford.^[3]

He died on April 6, 2006, at age 47 from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.^[1] At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia 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.^[4][5]

Wirtz was openly gay.^[3] 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."^[3]