Perdita pulls plug on Beijing comeback ...

Perdita Felicien has pulled the plug on her attempted comeback for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The 28-year-old Pickering hurdler, who hasn’t been able to compete since injuring her foot during training last February, is expected to make the announcement official Tuesday during a conference call.

Felicien attended the recent Canadian track and field trials in Windsor and was named to the Canadian Olympic team for Beijing conditional on being able to run the B standard of 13.11 seconds.

But it was becoming more and more apparent because of the time she had missed – she was on crutches for four weeks at one point – that even if she made the team, it would next to impossible for her to be competitive at the Beijing Games.

It’s a big blow to the Canadian Olympic team as Felicien was a silver medalist at last year’s world championships in a heartening comeback from the disastrous fall she suffered at the first hurdle at the 2004 Athens Games after entering as a favourite.

Felicien has said that regardless of how things turned out for Beijing that she’d continue through the 2012 London Olympics and that people shouldn’t feel sorry for her.

“Everybody looks at everything through the mirror of Athens,” said Felicien. “I don’t look at it that way. I don’t win medals that way, by looking in the past. I’m looking forward. I’m working my butt off to be there (in Beijing).

“But if for someone reason I’m not, you’re going to get people that say ‘That’s too bad. Poor Perdita. Poor Perdita.’ No, it’s not poor Perdita, because I absolutely feel blessed to do what I do and to do it for a living. And I still do feel like my best race is ahead of me. I haven’t run the race of my life that’s going to seal off my career. And that’s why I wake up every morning, that’s what keeps me going.”

Comments

[Go Canada!]

Wonderful attitude from Perdita! Best of luck to her in her training.

[Stickana Proc]

I guess this time we won't have to see her screaming poetry from her hotel room balcony and as well as claim to win before the race is even run. Sorry you couldn't make it Perdita....But you are one athlete I won't miss.

[Eric]

It's easy to feel sad for her, just like it was easy to feel sad for her in Athens, but some people just aren't meant to shine. Maybe because they don't believe they are. That gaffe at the Olympics in Greece was hard to watch. To this day I cringe. What was harder to watch was Perdita pretending like it wasn't hard to watch! Now she just happens to get injured TRAINING in FEBRUARY which knocks her out of the Olympics in AUGUST. It's like, maybe this girl just wasn't meant for the big stage. She's a nice girl and all but it's a shame to watch people with such bad luck.

[Ram Shrivats]

Great attitude. The fact that she achieved a silver medal just last year after the Athens fall, talks a lot about her will power, hardwork, commitments and skill level. She is an inspiration, even if she does get any further in future. She can perhaps be a great coach and an asset for the canadian system, having gone through all the stress. Let future be the judge. I would like dwell on the positives. Atheletes need to believe in their capabilities and get a to a zone or a bubble. Not everyone is capable of getting out of the bubble. We can perhaps be more gracious and ignore the lack of balance in some of their interviews which provide very little time to recover. There is enough positive side to every one of them. Disappointments in life are part of the learning and it will only be disgrace if an athlete is associated with performance enhancing drugs. There is no disgrace in falling in a competitive sport. It takes a lot of courage to come back after that. We should be proud of our atheletes for being the best that they can be. It may not always be winning the medal. That is what we would do to our kids.