The former Olympic hero's upcoming trial is just the latest headline from a life lived in the spotlight.

Marianne White

Once the darling of the Canadian athletic world, Myriam Bédard has had a long and steady descent from the top of the podium in her post Olympic life.

Ms. Bédard, a double-gold medallist in biathlon, is to appear in court tomorrow for the start of a trial that is just the latest headline in a life in the spotlight.

She is accused of abducting her 12-year-old daughter, but is challenging the case and asking for a stay of proceedings.

Estranged from her family and friends since she took up with her companion, Nima Mazhari, Ms. Bédard has become increasingly isolated and her behaviour has often raised eyebrows.

Her family has not talked to her for more than four years and accuses Mr. Mazhari -- who is out of jail pending an appeal of his conviction for stealing 20 paintings from a fellow artist -- of manipulating her.

"I think that the media have more access to her than I do," said her mother, Francine Bédard, in an interview.

The upcoming trial is yet another ordeal for the family who backed Ms. Bédard's ex-husband's decision to go to police last year after she left for the U.S. and took their daughter, Maude, with her.

"We live a day at a time. We live with that the best we can," Francine Bédard said in a soft, but weary sounding voice.

She is not sure if she will attend the trial, if there is one.

In an affidavit filed last week, Ms. Bédard's lawyer, John T. Pepper Jr., wrote that the proceedings have "no apparent legal grounds" because Ms. Bédard had sole custody of her daughter at the time of the U.S. trip.

Ms. Bédard, Mr. Mazhari, and Maude went to the U.S. last year to protest what they called "bureaucratic terrorism" by Canadian authorities as a result of Ms. Bédard's testimony in the sponsorship scandal. (Ms. Bédard had been working with VIA Rail and was hailed as a whistleblower for dishing out some details on how money was being spent, until she made some bizarre statements.)

Ms. Bédard's U.S. stay ended after two months with her arrest in Columbia, Maryland, after her ex-husband, Jean Paquet, also a former biathlete, sought a warrant alleging she breached a custody arrangement.

She was later charged with abduction in contravention of a custody order.

But Ms. Bédard's lawyer claims that this specific offence requires proof that the child is taken away from the person who has legal custody of the child. According to a February 2004 ruling, Ms. Bédard has sole custody of Maude and Mr. Paquet only has access to visit his child, Mr. Pepper said.

Mr. Pepper said it would be "totally unfair" to try her under those circumstances. "We are very confident," he said.

Justice Jean-Claude Beaulieu is expected to address the motion to dismiss the case tomorrow. If the trial goes ahead, it is expected to last three weeks. If Ms. Bédard is found guilty of abduction, she could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Ms. Bédard has said she is anxious to start the case and clear her name.

After the glow faded from her medal triumphs at the 1992 Winter Games at Albertville, France, where she won bronze and her double gold at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, she tried to compete in rowing and skating. When that failed, she publicly criticized Olympic authorities and former sponsors.

She also quarrelled with sponsor MetLife, which dropped her in a very public fashion, suggesting that her medal wins had made her greedy.

Ms. Bédard started a publicity firm with Mr. Mazhari after that and later decided to move to Lévis, across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City, in 2002 to open a restaurant with him. That was the breaking point for her and her family.

"What can we do? It's her life, so it's probably better to let go of that. We try not to think about that too much," her mother said.

The restaurant adventure didn't last long and the failure left behind a lot of unhappy employees and creditors. Some of them have sued the couple for unpaid bills.

But Ms. Bédard's dramatic fall from grace was noticed when, testifying before the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, she made a number of allegations that couldn't be substantiated. As a former employee of VIA Rail, she claimed that race car champion Jacques Villeneuve had received $12 million from the sponsorship program for wearing the Canadian flag on his outfit and that one of the sponsorship ad agencies had been involved in drug deals. She also insisted that Mr. Mazhari helped former prime minister Jean Chrétien make the decision not to send troops to Iraq.

The head of VIA Rail at the time, Jean Pelletier, referred to her as a "pitiful" single mother. Mr. Pelletier was fired for that, but the courts later ruled that the government had treated him unfairly.

The couple was back in the spotlight this summer when Mr. Mazhari stood trial for stealing 20 paintings from Ghita Caiserman-Roth between 2001 and 2003. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail, but is free while his lawyers appeal the case.

Ms. Bédard stood by him during the trial and it is likely he will do the same for her.

Ms. Bédard's mother doesn't know what to make of the trial, but she knows one thing for sure: She still hopes to reconcile with her daughter.

"I keep the faith. You can't give up when it's one of your children," she said. "We hope that one day there will be a change. But we have to go on with our life. I have my son, Benoît, and my other daughter, Chantal, who has four daughters, so our life goes on with them."

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