Chantal Petitclerc added another accolade to her growing collection last week by claiming the Female Athlete of the Year award for 2004 at the Canadian Sports Awards in Toronto. She was just one winner among many, though, during the ceremony to honour Canada’s best athletes.

The evening, which recognizes the achievements of Canadian amateur sports stars, was especially memorable for the nation’s paralympians. Petitclerc spent most of 2004 dominating the sport of women’s wheelchair racing, taking home five gold medals from the Paralympics in Athens and breaking three world records.

“It’s very special,” she said in her acceptance speech at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It’s always special to win this kind of award. I feel so privileged just to be able to live my passion.”

Petitclerc, from Montreal, made headlines last year for refusing to share the top female athlete award from Athletics Canada with hurdler Perdita Felicien. Despite the dispute the 35-year-old was happy that communication has reopened between her and Athletics Canada.

“We talked and we talked a little louder. I was very happy that we had meetings and we could be constructive. I am glad the sport [of wheelchair racing] has got the recognition it deserved,” Petitclerc said.

The Partners of the Year award was handed to the Canadian men’s rowing four, with Olympic silver medalists Jake Wetzel and Barney Williams in attendance to collect the award. The ceremony brought to an end a whirlwind week for Williams, who had spent the previous night partying in England after his Oxford University rowing team won a memorable victory in the historic Boat Race.

Williams and his Oxford teammates beat Cambridge University to the finish line on the river Thames in London, England to record their 72nd victory since the competition’s creation in 1829. He was looking fresh despite his partying and would most likely have gone home with the brightest shirt of the evening award as well if such an award existed.

Back in Canada, though, the British Columbian still has his feet firmly on the ground and is aware that there is a lot of work to be done in order to move Canadian rowing forward: “We’re here to knock on doors on behalf of the Canadian rowing team. We’re going to have to play the game.”

The evening’s list of winners, however, shows that the evening that belonged to Canada’s paralympians. Olympic gold-medal winners took the male and female team awards, as Canada’s men’s wheelchair and women’s goalball teams scooped the prizes. Meanwhile, Peter Erikkson, Peticlerc’s coach, took the Coach of the Year award.

Kyle Shewfelt, Canada’s first Olympic medal winner in artistic gymnastics, picked up the Male Athlete of the Year award.

“This award means a lot to me,” said the Calgary-born gymnast. “I want the sport of gymnastics to move forward.”

Moving sports forward was the message of the day, with paralympians feeling that their showing at these awards was a step in the right direction. It was Petitclerc herself who underlined this point: “In Canada, a world-class performance is a world-class performance, and it doesn’t matter whether this world-class performance is achieved on foot, on a bicycle, in a kayak, or in a racing wheelchair.”