MONTREAL — Bruny Surin thought it was a prank.
McGill University's historic athletics program is an integral part of amateur sports in Canada, so when a message flashed on Surin's phone that the school was abandoning it after 125 years, the Olympic champion sprinter didn't believe it.
“This news is a nightmare for me,” Surin said in a telephone interview Thursday. “Honestly, I first saw it on Instagram and thought, 'OK, well, as our friend in the States likes to say, 'It's fake news.'
“I didn't believe it.”
Surin, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the 4×100, is among a long list of Canadian athletes who have expressed their disappointment after McGill announced last week that it would cut 25 sports teams because an internal audit and external review found “the current structure is no longer sustainable.”
The school will also cut its women's rugby team and men's volleyball and lacrosse teams, among several others, at the end of the 2025/26 season, citing lack of facilities, budget and human resources.
The university said its committee used “multiple criteria” in reviewing teams over several months, including the RSEQ sports model – the framework used by Quebec's governing body for school sports – competitiveness, recruiting and resource requirements. Many track and field athletes have since wondered why their program failed to qualify.
After this statement, Surin said he began mobilizing to find solutions.
“I'm talking to someone who has influence in the administration,” the Montreal native said. “I told this man that I would make myself available. Let's brainstorm for two hours, show me a portrait.
“After 125 years, it's like, why don't we sit down again and have everyone say, here's the portrait, here's the situation, and is there something like option B that we can do? Is it something that we can come up with outside the box?
“When you talk about Canadian universities and McGill, it's like, 'Wow, McGill is a thing.' Even outside of Canada, McGill is a thing.”
Surin, chief of mission for the 2024 Paris Olympics, said he's encouraged by what Canada's record medal tally at the non-boycotted summer games could mean for the sport at home.
“I think it will be great for Canada, given all the good exposure and results we have, it will be good,” he said. “It’s not good at all to hear that now.”
“We're going back.”
Andre De Grasse, a seven-time Olympic sprint medalist, also called on the university to reverse its decision.
“What happens at McGill matters across Canada,” he said in a statement. “When a leading university cuts a program like this, it sends the wrong message to current and future athletes, as well as university leaders across the country.
“Athletics has always been one of our most diverse and inclusive sports, and it deserves to be protected, not destroyed.”
Nicholas Makrozonaris never attended McGill as an undergraduate, but he says the university's track and field program played a critical role in his development into an Olympic-level sprinter.
Now the two-time Olympian and former Canadian champion from Laval, Quebec, is concerned the next generation won't have the same opportunities.
“They played a big role not only in the development of my athletic career, but in the development of all the Olympic athletes that came out of Montreal,” he said. “It’s such an important part and I’m really disappointed about it.”
Macrosonaris relied on the McGill program and Tomlinson Fieldhouse—one of three indoor tracks at Canadian universities—to meet international competition standards.
Dennis Barrett, McGill's longtime track and field coach, was always adaptable, and in 2002 Makrosonaris set the 60-meter course record of 6.56 seconds.
“It was the time that I believe allowed me to compete at the World Indoor Championships,” he said. “When you have opportunities, athletes thrive. Take away those opportunities, I might not have a chance to run the standard today.”
“I feel that as people begin to understand the importance of this institution, this track team that has been around for over one hundred and twenty years, they will begin to appreciate it and maybe re-evaluate or find a solution to reinstate it.”
McGill did not respond to requests for comment on how the closing of the athletics program would impact Tomlinson Fieldhouse, nor did it share projected cost savings from these cuts.
The cuts come amid financial problems at Quebec universities, including dwindling enrollment of international students. In May, the university announced it had laid off 60 people to balance its budget and said it expected a “staggering” $185 million in lost revenue over the next four years due to government measures.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2025.
