A busy year for gold medal winner Chantal Petitclerc
She’ll head up the Canadian mission at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and is expecting her first child
Paralympic gold medallist Chantal Petitclerc is the new Chef de Mission for the Canadian team at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
But before resuming her duties as the inspirational leader for the hundreds of paralympic and other athletes expected to attend the games, Petitclerc has some other business to finish up. She’s participating in this Saturday’s Shopper’s Drug Mart Run for Women, a fundraiser for the Women’s Mental Health Program at The Royal hospital. And oh yes, she’s pregnant and expecting her first child in December, just seven months before the Games kick off.
She says she’s ready for the challenges of Chef de Mission and motherhood.
“Everybody is telling me if I thought winning gold medals was challenging I haven’t seen anything yet,” laughs Petitclerc, 43, in an interview from her Montreal home. It is her first child with her partner James Duhamel, a composer of soundtracks for TV shows.
“The timing is quite good because I’m just back from Scotland and my last trip there will be in October, and then maybe go again in April, so I think I will have to miss one meeting in Glasgow. Everyone at Commonwealth Games Canada has been very understanding, supportive and excited for me.”
Her appointment as Chef de Mission is the first time that a Paralympic athlete has been named to the position. It’s a honour to be chosen for such a prestigious title, says the retired athlete, a paralympic gold medallist who also served as a coach and mentor for the British team at last year’s Olympics in London.
“When they choose a Chef de Mission they have to look for someone of course, with leadership that can inspire the athletes and bring the team close together. At the same time we need to make sure that someone can be competent with all the operations that go on with a team,” she says.
“This was the case where I didn’t have a whole bunch of experience, but have been on teams as an athlete, but not as a staff or on the operations side. I think my coaching last year in London really helped and I was able to show them that I was a quick learner. I think I can make a difference because I have the athlete’s perspective,” she says.
Petitclerc says looking at the games from her role as Chef de Mission is an “eye-opening” experience and different from her days as a competitive athlete.
“When you are an athlete it is your job to be focused around your own needs and goals, and when you are on the other side you are just trying to provide that optimal performance environment for the athletes and the coaches. Being Chef de Mission makes me learn about the whole scope of things, from visiting all the sports venues, having to do the clothing selection, to where we’re going to put the athletes village.
“It’s very exciting and it makes me even more thankful for everything that people have done when I was an athlete.”
Petitclerc lost the use of her legs when she was 13 years old after a heavy barn door fell on her. She was introduced to wheelchair sports years later and competed in the Paralympic Games for the first time in Barcelona in 1992.
She received two bronze medals in Barcelona and went on to compete in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing, picking up 21 medals in total, including 14 gold. She retired after the 2008 Beijing Games.
The Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women is in Ottawa for the first time this year after starting in 2012 in Vancouver, Unionville, Ont. and Calgary. This year Ottawa, Halifax and Quebec City have been added to the competition.
The Ottawa run begins from the Canadian War Museum at LeBreton Flats Saturday at 8 a.m. and features a 5K and 10K run and a girls (12 and under) 1K run.
Petitclerc says the run is a “celebration” of women and fitness, adding it’s the first time she has participated in such an event.
“I love those events that combine sport and outdoor fitness but also serve a purpose and have bit of a celebration in it,” she says. Petitclerc will be the keynote speaker at 8 a.m. on Saturday, just before the runs start, and also participate in the run.
“So far I’m participating, but I have to talk to the organizers because I’m getting a little too big to do the racing thing, so I might do a walk in my everyday chair. I’m not sure if I can be that competitive,” she says.