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Five-Time Paralympian Petitclerc to Help Coach Great Britain
Chantal Petitclerc will join Great Britain’s Athletics delegation as a coach and mentor for London 2012.
Chantal Petitclerc concentrating before race in Beijing
“I have a great passion for the sport and as an athlete I wanted to be the best in the world."
Five-time Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc, one of the most decorated athletes of all time with 14 Paralympic Games gold medals, will join Great Britain’s Athletics delegation as a coach and mentor for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Petitclerc will attend all key preparation camps and competitions from January 2012 onward. She will work directly with Great Britain’s wheelchair racers alongside her own former coach Peter Eriksson and former Marathon silver medallist of Canada, Kelly Smith.
Petitclerc won two bronze medals at her Paralympic Games debut in at the Barcelona 1992 Games and went on to win a total of 21 Paralympic Games medals throughout her career in all distances from 100m to 1500m (T54).
“I have a great passion for the sport and as an athlete I wanted to be the best in the world,” Petitclerc told UK Athletics.
“As a coach I also want to work with the best in the world and I think that Peter and I, as well as the rest of the staff, share a real determination to succeed. I hope that in addition to offering advice in preparation and competition based on my own experiences, I can also share some of what I’ve learned along the way to help motivate and inspire our athletes to be the best they can be.”
Shelly Woods, a double medallist at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and runner-up in both the 2011 London and New York Marathons, is thrilled with who will be on the sidelines in London next year.
“Peter has been building this team for some time and when he brought in (wheelchair racing coach) Kelly Smith that was brilliant,” Woods told UK Athletics.
“He asked if there was still something missing, and I said the only person that could make it even better was Chantal. I’m really excited and I’m still totally shocked. I’ve got so many questions to ask her. She’s one of my idols and although she was one of my rivals when she was racing I really looked up to her."