Chantal Petitclerc | |
---|---|
Canadian Senator from Grandville | |
Assumed office March 18, 2016 | |
Nominated by | Justin Trudeau |
Appointed by | David Johnston |
Preceded by | Andrée Champagne (2014) |
Personal details | |
Born | Saint-Marc-des-Carrières,Quebec,Canada | December 15,1969
Political party | Independent Senators Group |
Spouse | James Duhamel |
Children | Elliot Duhamel |
Sports career | |
Country | Canada |
Sport | wheelchair racer |
Medal record | |
Chantal Petitclerc CC CQ MSM (born December 15, 1969) is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec.
At the age of 13, Petitclerc lost the use of both legs in an accident when at a friend's farm, a heavy barn door fell on her, fracturing her spine at the L1-T12 vertebra. [1] [2] Gaston Jacques, a high school physical education teacher, was to have a decisive influence on her life when he taught her to swim for four lunch hours a week throughout high school as she was unable to participate in the gym course. [3] In a 2011 interview, she stated that, "[swimming] really helped me get more fit and stronger, and helped me live a more independent life in a wheelchair." Swimming also allowed her to discover her competitive drive. [1] While she had previously been first in her class academically, it was her introduction to the world of competitive racing. [3]
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 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 CEGEP de Sainte-Foy and then in history at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, 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, fourteen of them gold. 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. For her performance in 2008, she was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year [4] and the Canadian Press's Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's female athlete of the year. [5] Petitclerc was also awarded the Best Female award at the Paralympic Sport Awards. [6]
With her 5 golds in the 2004 Paralympics, she tied the existing Canadian gold medal record at a single Games, Winter or Summer, set by Stephanie Dixon at the 2000 Summer Paralympics. Her 5 golds in the 2008 Paralympics tied that record. As of 2010, the record still stood. [7] As of 2012 she holds five world records for wheelchair racing. [8] As of 2019 [update] she is still the most gold-medalled female paralympic athlete with 14 golds and 21 medals. [9]
She was chosen as the flagbearer of the Canadian team at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. [10]
Petitclerc lives in Montreal, and trains at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard.
Rio Tinto Alcan is her main sponsor since 1998.
Petitclerc was appointed as a coach and mentor to the British athletics team ahead of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, working alongside her former coach and UK Athletics' Paralympic head coach Peter Eriksson. [11]
Petitclerc was named the Chef de Mission for Canada's 2014 Commonwealth Games team. [10] She was also named Chef de Mission for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. [12]
Petitclerc is married to electro-acoustic music composer James Duhamel and gave birth to son Elliot in December 2013. [1]
On March 18, 2016, Petitclerc was named to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. She sits as a member of the Independent Senators Group. Her main priorities in the Senate are health as well as the rights of persons with disabilities. In June 2016, Senator Petitclerc delivered her first speech in the Chamber on Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts (medical assistance in dying). Her speech moved many of her colleagues, when she quoted: "When you have a disability, the worst part is feeling as if you have no control over your own life, over your own body. It happens to all people with disabilities, I can assure you." She also sponsored Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non Smokers' Health Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts. [13]
The St-Marc-des-Carrières municipal ice hockey arena now bears her name.
In 2002, Petitclerc was awarded with the Meritorious Service Medal (civil division). [14]
In 2005, Petitclerc was invested as a Knight of the Order of Quebec [15] That year, Petitclerc became part of the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame. [16]
On June 16, 2009, it was announced that Petitclerc would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on September 12, 2009. [17]
In 2009, she was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada "for her achievements as a Paralympic champion known internationally as an inspiration, and for her commitment to developing sports for athletes with a disability". [18]
In 2010, she was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary, Alberta. [19]
In 2012, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Alberta. [8]
Petitclerc has also received both the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal [20] and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. [21]
In 2015, Petitclerc was inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame of the Canadian Paralympic Committee. [22]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Eliza Ault-Connell, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who competed at Paralympic and Olympic Games. She survived meningococcal disease and plays a major role in improving the Australian community's awareness of the disease.
Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
Wheelchair racing at the Summer Olympics featured as demonstration competitions at the multi-sport event, appearing within the Olympic athletics programme from 1984 to 2004. On each occasion two track races were held: a men's 1500 metres race and a women's 800 metres race. This was the first time events for disabled athletes have featured at the Summer Olympic Games, with the Paralympic Games being the traditional venue for top level para-athletics. The wheelchair races were the second Olympic exhibition event for disabled athletes, following on from the disabled skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics, held earlier that year.
Dean Bergeron is a Paralympic athlete from Canada who competed mainly in category T52 sprint events in four Paralympic Games and is pursuing a career as an actuary.
Canada has participated eleven times in the Summer Paralympic Games and in all Winter Paralympic Games. They first competed at the Summer Games in 1968 and the Winter Games in 1976.
Robert Daniel Steadward, is a Canadian retired sports administrator, professor, sports scientist, and author. Steadward helped organize the first Canadian wheelchair sport national championships in 1968, and later coached Canada in wheelchair basketball at the Summer Paralympics. He became a professor at the University of Alberta in 1971, later served as chairman of the Department of Athletics, and published more than 150 papers about disability sport. He was the founding president of the Alberta Wheelchair Sports Association in 1971, founded the Research and Training Centre for Athletes with Disabilities in 1978, served as president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee from 1984 to 1990, and later became a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Peter Eriksson is an athletics coach and formerly the head coach of the Olympic and Paralympic programs for both British Athletics and Athletics Canada. Eriksson has over 30 years of coaching experience in speed skating and track and field; and has led Canada to record medal performances in the 2016 Olympic Games, 2015 World Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games. Under his leadership as performance director and head coach, the nations that he has worked with has generated over 240 medals at major International Competitions.
Jessica Rogers is an American wheelchair basketballer, wheelchair racer and swimmer. She is also the founder of the International Sacral Agenesis/Caudal Regression Syndrome Association, or iSACRA, an organization for information sharing, support, and networking.
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Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, winning two gold medals, three silver and a bronze. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Angela Ballard is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.
Daphne Jean Hilton was an Australian Paralympic competitor. She was the first Australian woman to compete at the Paralympic Games. She won fourteen medals in three Paralympics in archery, athletics, fencing, swimming, and table tennis from 1960 to 1968.
T54 is a disability sport classification for disability athletics in the track and jump events. The class includes people with spinal cord injuries who compete using a wheelchair in track events. They have paraplegia, but have normal hand and arm function, normal or limited trunk function, and no leg function. This class includes CP-ISRA classes CP3 and CP4, and some athletes in ISOD classes A1, A2 and A3.
Susan Marjory "Tracey" Freeman was an Australian Paralympic athlete who won ten medals at two Paralympics.
Paul Wiggins is an Australian wheelchair racer.
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Caz Walton OBE is a British retired wheelchair athlete and former Great Britain Paralympic team manager. She was a multi-disciplinary gold medallist who competed in numerous Paralympic Games. Between 1964 and 1976 she won medals in athletics, swimming, table tennis, and fencing. She took a break from the Paralympics, entering the basketball and fencing competitions in 1988. In total Walton won ten gold medals during her Paralympic career, making her one of the most successful British athletes of all time. Walton should also have been awarded gold in the 1968 Tel Aviv Women's Pentathlon incomplete but, due to a miscalculation of her total score which went unnoticed at the time, she was given third place and a bronze medal.
Martha Sandoval Gustafson is a Mexican-Canadian Paralympic medallist in table tennis, swimming, and athletics. As a Mexican Paralympian, Gustafson won a total of twelve medals, which includes three golds at the 1976 Summer Paralympics and two golds and the 1980 Summer Paralympics. After she moved to Canada in 1981, Gustafson won six golds and one silver at the 1984 Summer Paralympics for Canada. In 2020, Gustafson became part of the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.