Perdita Felicien announces retirement

Perdita Felicien announced today at a press conference that she is retiring from professional athletics.

Felicien will leave as one of Canada’s most accomplished athletes of the last decade. She is a two-time Olympian in 2000 and 2004, and holds Canadian records in the 60m and 100m hurdles.

“The last 13 years racing for Canada have been the most formidable years of my life,” Felicien said at the press conference. “They were a sobering cocktail of triumph, heartbreak and perseverance. I always thought when my retirement came that I would feel sad. Instead I stand fiercely proud of all that I achieved and I feel a massive sense of honour in representing such a beautiful nation.”

The 33-year-old rose to prominence in the Canadian track and field world with her 2003 gold medal performance at the world championships in Paris, leading her to national fame in 2004 before the Athens Olympics.

The Pickering, Ont. native set the national record of 12.46 in 2004, putting her as the top seed leading into the Athens. At the Olympics she was one the gold medal favourites in the 100mH, but hit the first hurdle in the final and failed to finish the race.

Felicien retires as a 10-time Canadian champion, two-time world champion, and two-time Olympian.

She also competed during an era when Canadian women’s sprint hurdling was an incredibly deep event; seven of the top-10 Canadian all-time best marks were set by Felicien and her competition between 1999 and 2012, many of them other Olympic and world championship finalists and medalists themselves.