20 years after she won 6 gold medals in Athens, Chantal Petitclerc continues to champion Paralympics

In 2004, wheelchair sprinter Chantal Petitclerc collected six gold medals in Athens — five of the Paralympic variety, and one in an Olympic test event.

That same year, Perdita Felicien won the 60-metre hurdles at the world indoor championships, but stumbled on a hurdle in her Olympic final in Athens and finished out of the medals.

Despite that, Athletics Canada endeavoured to name Petitclerc and Felicien co-athletes of the year for 2004.

Petitclerc refused.

"To this day, I thought it was such a bad situation for Perdita to be caught in the middle. But I had to stand by principles and I had to be consistent with what I've always been saying, that a medal is a medal and that my medal had value and it had as much value," Petitclerc said last month.

The rift with Athletics Canada 20 years ago proved to be the start of a lifetime of social action.

Petitclerc, the Saint-Marc-des-Carrières, Que., native, who is now 54, is a member of the Canadian Senate, where she was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016. One of the main causes she works toward is the rights of peoples with disabilities.

WATCH: Canada's co-chefs de mission: 'We're ready for the Paralympics':

"If you believe in what you say, if you're consistent with what you've been saying about persons with disability, about your sport, then you can't hide away, you need to do it. So that's how I felt at the time," Petitclerc said. 

"So I have no regrets, but it was not pleasant."

Four years after Athens, Petitclerc returned to the Paralympics for what she said would be her final Games. 

In Beijing, the Canadian successfully defended each of her five titles — the T54 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 metres.

Petitclerc called the accomplishment both the biggest