Thursday, June 16, 2005 - The Chronicle Herald

Front-page Petitclerc

Paralympian pushes equality in sport to fore

By Chad Lucas, Sports Reporter

With caption “Chantal Petitclerc shows off her gold medal Wednesday in Halifax for winning the 400-metre wheelchair race at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.” 

Chantal Petitclerc didn’t know what was coming when she returned home from the Paralympic Games in Athens last fall.

“I remember at the airport I said, ‘I’m taking two weeks off then I’m coming back to train,’” Petitclerc said Wednesday in Halifax after speaking at a NovaKnowledge luncheon.  “That didn’t happen at all.”

Instead she was swept up in a tide of well-wishers and media attention – and no wonder.  The sunny Montrealer had just turned in an astounding performance, winning five gold medals and setting three world records in wheelchair racing.

The spotlight grew even brighter in the fall when Athletics Canada told her she would be named track and field athlete of the year, along with hurdler Perdita Felicien.

Petitclerc pondered the news for a few days and then quietly sent off an e-mail saying she didn’t want to share the award.  She felt it devalued the Paralympics, putting her dominant medal sweep on par with Felicien taking a tumble at the Olympics.

“It was a very difficult situation, because it wasn’t personal,” Petitclerc said.  “Perdita is someone I have so much respect for.  At the same time…I felt like this was the best performance by any Paralympic athlete in wheelchair racing ever, and I did not want to compromise on that.”

Her decision found its way to the public and became a front-page story.  “I was very surprised how it got so big,” Petitclerc said, but at the same time she’s glad it happened.  Suddenly people on talk shows and at water coolers were discussing how to rank a Paralympian’s performance – and that’s good, Petitclerc said.

“Just to break it open and go further than, “Oh, we love those Paralympic athletes, five them a pat on the back.’ If you recognize them as athletes, it has to be all the way,” she said.  “To have that discussion open, I thought that was very positive.”

The personal response Petitclerc received was overwhelmingly positive.  She said people sent her about 600 e-mails in that first week, many from people with disabilities who thanked her for not backing down.

Maclean’s magazine chose her as its 2004 Canadian of the year, and she was named the 2005 Laureus world sportsperson of the year with a disability.

The personal accolades aren’t so important to Petitclerc, who’s been testing her limits – and then exceeding them – ever since an accident in a friend’s barn left her without the use of her legs when she was 13.  She found wheelchair racing at 18 while studying at Laval, and it brought out a new side of her.

“I found out I was a very competitive person,” she told her audience, drawing one of several laughs.  Petitclerc came last in her first race in 1988; four years later, she went to her first Paralympics in Barcelona and brought home two bronze medals.

At Atlanta in 1996 she captured the first of what would be many gold medals and world records.  She recalled the reaction from her coach, Swedish speed skater Peter Eriksson.  “He was jumping up and down and totally forgetting that I don’t speak Swedish.  I had no idea what he was saying, but I knew he was very happy for me.”

Petitclerc has pushed other people with disabilities to challenge themselves.  She started a wheelchair racing series this year in her native Quebec, and she also offers clinics for children and their parents to show them a wheelchair doesn’t stop you from being active.

“Even if they don’t become a paralympic champion, maybe they’ll make sport part of their life,” she said.  “I think that’s good enough.”

As for her own future, she plans to compete in next year’s world championships and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, before deciding if she wants to continue until the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

But the competitive fire is still there, and it unsettles her a bit to be asked if, at 35 and with nothing really left to accomplish, she wants to keep going.

“They always ask that to the athletes.  It’s like you’re always feeling guilty that you’re not tired of racing,” she said with a laugh.  “It feels like you should grow up or something.  But maybe I don’t want to grow up.  This is fun.”

Copyright © 2005 The Halifax Herald Limited