Alexandra Paul

Alexandra Jane Paul (September 16, 1991 – August 22, 2023) was a Canadian competitive ice dancer. With her skating partner and eventual husband, Mitchell Islam, she won the silver medal at the 2010 World Junior Championships. In their senior career, Paul and Islam were the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medalists, three-time Canadian national bronze medalists (2011, 2014–2015), and represented their country at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Career

Alexandra Paul finished third with Jason Cheperdak in junior ice dancing at the 2009 Canadian Championships. She then began looking for a new partner and had a successful tryout in February 2009 with Mitchell Islam, a fellow skater at the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, Ontario. In July 2009, they beat the Canadian junior champions at the Minto Summer Skate and were given a Junior Grand Prix assignment. They competed at two 2009–10 Junior Grand Prix events, finishing fourth in Poland and fifth in Turkey. They won gold at the Canadian Junior Championships and were assigned to Junior Worlds where they captured the silver medal.

Paul and Islam moved up to the senior ranks for the 2010–2011 season. They finished fourth in their senior Grand Prix debut at 2010 Skate Canada International. Their next event was 2010 Cup of Russia. They had a fall in the short dance and withdrew from the free dance after Paul sustained a rib injury. After winning the bronze medal at the 2014 Canadian Championships, they were assigned to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where they placed 18th.

Paul/Islam ranked 8th in the short dance, 14th in the free dance, and 13th overall at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, China. A few weeks later, they changed coaches, joining Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, and Romain Haguenauer at the Gadbois Centre in Montreal, Quebec. On August 22, 2023, Paul was killed when her car was hit by a transport truck. The baby was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Tribute was paid to Paul at the 2023 Skate Canada International, where all the flower girls were dressed in versions of her 2014 Olympic free dance costume.

In February 2026, truck driver Sukhwinder Sidhu pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm; in May 2026, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, as well as a seven-year driving ban.