Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc named Canada's top athlete

From www.chantalpetitclerc.com/:

Chantal Petitclerc has been named winner of the 2008 Lou Marsh Award.

The award, named after a longtime Toronto Star sports editor, goes to Canada's top athlete, either professional or amateur, as judged by a panel of journalists and sports figures. It is awarded in December each year.

Petitclerc won five gold medals and set three world records at the Beijing Paralympics.

Competing at Beijing in the T54 class for athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations, she won the 200- and 800-metre races within 90 minutes of each other, setting two world records.

"I told my coach, never again. This was a stressful day," she said after her double-gold day.

She also won the 400 in record time and the 100 before finishing up in the 1,500 with a win by more than one second over her closest rival.

Petitclerc was hurt as a teenager in Saint-Marc-des-Carrieres, a village between Quebec City and Trois Rivieres. She and a younger friend were trying to fashion an old barn door into a bike ramp. But as they tried to prop it up, it fell on Petitclerc causing her injury.

Last year's winner was Sidney Crosby of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, speed skater Cindy Klassen won in 2006, and NBA star Steve Nash was the 2005 winner.

This year's 22 Lou Marsh finalists included Olympic gold-medal show jumper Eric Lamaze, Deportivo la Coruna soccer star Julian de Guzman, basketball standout Steve Nash, world figure skating champion Jeffrey Buttle, Olympic silver-medal triathlete Simon Whitfield and Daniel Nestor, who was a member of the No. 1 doubles team on the ATP Tour.