Chantal Petitclerc
Chantal Petitclerc (born December 15, 1969 in Saint-Marc-des-Carrières, Quebec) is a Canadian wheelchair racer.
Petitclerc was born on December 15, 1969 in Saint-Marc-des-Carrières in Quebec. At the age of thirteen, she lost the use of both legs when a heavy barn door fell on her. Gaston Jacques, a high school physical education teacher, was to have a decisive influence on her life when he convinced her to try swimming to develop her physical strength and stamina. It was Petitclerc's first contact with sports and training.
When she was eighteen, Pierre Pomerleau, a trainer at Université Laval in Quebec City, introduced her to wheelchair sports. Using a homemade wheelchair, she took part in her first race and came in dead last, well behind the other competitors. However, she had fallen in love with wheelchair racing and a long and fruitful career had begun.
While Petitclerc was developing her skills as a wheelchair athlete, she pursued her studies, first in social sciences at the Sainte-Foy College and then in history at the University of Alberta, where she registered in order to be able to train with Peter Eriksson, who remains her coach to this day.
Petitclerc competed in the Paralympic Games for the first time in Barcelona in 1992, returning with two bronze medals, the start of collection that now includes twenty one Paralympic medals. Four years later, at the Atlanta games, she took gold medals in the 100 and 200 m events and three silvers in the 400, 800, and 1500 m races. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she won two golds, in the 200 m and 800 m, and two silvers, in the 100 m and 400 m races. She won three gold medals (in 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m) and a bronze (800 m) at the 2002 World Championships and a gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the 800 m. At the 2004 Summer Olympics (where wheelchair racing was an exhibition sport) she won the 800 m, and went on to an impressive showing with 5 gold medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. When she returned from Athens in 2004, Petitclerc told reporters the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing would be her last big international meeting but that she will continue training and road racing for a while.
She was chosen as the flagbearer of the Canadian team at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Petitclerc lives in Montreal, and trains at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard.
The St-Marc-des-Carrières municipal ice hockey arena now bears her name.
Rio Tinto Alcan is her main sponsor since 1998.
Records
Chantal Petitclerc owns the Canadian record for all track distances, from 100m to 1500m.
She also holds the following world records:
- 200m, Beijing, China, 2008 : 27.52
- 400m, Athens, Greece, 2004: 51.91
- 800m, Atlanta, USA, 2004: 1:47.50
- 1500m, Atlanta, USA, 2007: 3:24.20
And the following Paralympic Records:
- 100m: 16.33
- 400m: 51.91
- 800m: 1:50.69
- 1500m: 3:26.89
External links
- 1969 births
- Living people
- Wheelchair racers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Paralympic athletes of Canada
- Athletes at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
- Athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics
- Athletes at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
- Athletes at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
- Athletes at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
- Paralympic gold medalists for Canada
- Paralympic silver medalists for Canada
- Paralympic bronze medalists for Canada
- Athletes at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games gold medalists for Canada
- Laureus World Sports Awards winners
- Olympic wheelchair racers of Canada
- Quebec sportspeople
- Canadian sportswomen
- Members of Team Darfur