Competitors such as Canada's Chantal Petitclerc have earned respect from elite Olympic athletes, spectators and the world's media. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadkian Press)

A single medal is all Canadians had to show for their track and field performances at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the gold won by Chantal Petitclerc in the exhibition wheelchair 800-metre event.

Sadly, the 38-year-old Montrealer didn't have the opportunity to defend her title in Beijing as the wheelchair events were discontinued from the Olympic Games, perhaps for good. They had been contested since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. It's a decision that didn't sit well with Petitclerc.

Petitclerc surprised

Canada’s most decorated Paralympic athlete has vigorously advocated for the inclusion of the wheelchair races in the Olympics. She says it is the best way of getting attention for her sports.

The International Paralympic Committee “did not contest the decision and has focused its efforts on ensuring the unprecedented promotional and operational success of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games." IPC represents not only wheelchair sports but sports for the blind, amputees, and cerebral palsied.

But over the years, the men's wheelchair 1,500 and women's wheelchair 800 have exemplified the quality of athletes competing in Paralympic events. Athletes such as Petitclerc have earned respect from elite Olympic athletes, spectators and the world's media. Indeed, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is as popular a figure in her native Great Britain as Petitclerc is in Canada.

"It's very frustrating," Petitclerc says. "I think at the very least they (IPC) should have informed the athletes who have been training for this event for four years. You are telling me that they decided in 2005 it was not going to happen? I have been training and I have sponsors supporting me because they saw me win in Athens and think I am going to try and win another one. It says a lot about how the IPC treats the athletes."

Athlete of the year

Petitclerc has 14 Paralympic medals to her credit, eight gold, five silver and one bronze and was Canada's Athlete of the Year in 2004 both for her Olympic Games performance and for the five gold medals she won at the Athens Paralympics. Although she wanted to perform once again in the Olympics to defend her gold medal, she now says she can focus her efforts entirely on the Paralympics.

"It was very challenging in Athens to race at the Olympics and peak again for the Paralympics three weeks later," she says. "So, very quickly, I have tried to change the focus and think how it's going to be an easier challenge to peak at the Paralympics."

Still, there will be an enormous difference between racing in a packed Olympic stadium and a near empty one during the Paralympics.

"The Paralympics is never going to have the same exposure as the Olympics," Petitclerc laments. "It is never going to have the same sponsorship. It's never going to be prime time. Here in Canada we are very supportive of the Paralympics. But it's not going to be live. I will be lucky to see 10 seconds of my races on the news. As an athlete I am trying to make a living from this. I am trying to get sponsors. It has a lot of consequences. People who say we don't need a demo event, I don't agree with it.”

Petitclerc has been competing in the Paralympics for Canada since 1992 in Barcelona where she won her first medal, a bronze in the 200. In two of her other events, the 400 and the 1500 she was competing against men.

Her success continued to grow into the 2004 Paralymics in Athens where she completely dominated her events with five gold medals and three world records. She won the 100, the 200, the 400, the 800m and the 1500m.