Chantal Petitclerc, winner of five gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, shows her medals to photographers as she arrives at Trudeau airport in Montreal Friday, Sept.19, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
A rift with Athletics Canada 20 years ago proved to be the start of a lifetime of social action for Paralympic multi-gold medallist Chantal Petitclerc.Chantal Petitclerc shows off her five gold medals won at the 2008 Paralympics after arriving home in Montreal. In 2004, wheelchair sprinter Chantal Petitclerc collected six gold medals in Athens — five of the Paralympic variety, and one in an Olympic test event.
"If you believe in what you say, if you're consistent with what you've been saying about persons with disability, about your sport, then you can't hide away, you need to do it. So that's how I felt at the time," Petitclerc said.Four years after Athens, Petitclerc returned to the Paralympics for what she said would be her final Games.
Scott Russell, who covered the 2008 Paralympics for the CBC, recalled standing in the mixed zone alongside TV star Rick Mercer with tens of thousands of people in the stands for wheelchair racing."And the dominant person was Chantal Petitclerc," Russell said. "She set out to win five gold medals again. She did it in dominant fashion, and the place went crazy.
"Now that I'm in a normal life, sometimes it comes with a bit of an angle saying, 'how do you get back that level of extreme focus in other projects?' And it's not that easy," she said. In retirement, Petitclerc has tried to keep her ties to the Paralympic movement, including serving as Canada's chef de mission at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2016 Paralympic Games.
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