'A nightmare': Champion sprinter Bruny Surin shocked by McGill's athletics cuts

Bruny Surin thought it was a hoax.

McGill University's historic track and field program is a fixture in Canada's amateur sports landscape so when word flashed across Surin's phone that the school was scrapping it after 125 years, the Olympic champion sprinter didn't buy it.

"To me, that news is a nightmare," Surin said in a phone interview Thursday. "To tell you the truth, I saw it first on Instagram and I was like, OK, well, like our friend in the States likes to say, `It's fake news.'

"I didn't believe it."

Surin, a 4x100 gold medallist at the 1996 Olympics, is among a long list of Canadian athletes expressing their disappointment after McGill announced last week it will cut 25 sports teams because an internal audit and external review made it clear the "current structure was no longer sustainable."

The school will also axe the women's rugby, men's volleyball and lacrosse teams, among several others, at the end of the 2025-26 season, citing a lack of facility space, budget and human resources.

Canadian track and field legend Bruny Surin calls McGill sports program cuts ‘impossible’

The university said its committee used "multiple criteria" while reviewing teams over several months, including the RSEQ sport model — the framework used by Quebec's governing body for school sport — competitive viability, recruitment pools and resource requirements. Many track and field athletes have since wondered why their program didn't qualify.

Since the announcement, Surin said he has begun mobilizing to find solutions.

"I'm in contact with a person who has influence in the administration," said the Montreal native. "I said to that person I'm gonna make myself available. Let's have two hours of brainstorming, show me the portrait.

"Aft