Rick Hansen
Biography
Born in Port Alberni, Hansen grew up in Williams Lake, BC. He was a young athlete who had won all-star awards in five sports when he was paralyzed at the age of 15, after he was thrown from the back of a truck. Although initially deeply despondent, he soon learned to conquer his disability. He worked on rehabilitation, completed high school, then became the first student with a physical disability to graduate in Physical Education from the University of British Columbia. He went on to become a world class champion wheelchair marathoner and 1984 Olympic athlete. Hansen won 19 international wheelchair marathons, including three world championships.
He was inspired to attempt his greatest feat by his friend, Terry Fox, who attempted an 8000 km cross-Canada marathon with an artificial leg in the name of raising funds for cancer research.
He is married to Amanda, his Wheels in Motion trainer. They have three daughters, Emma Kathleen (a model and avid volleyball player), Alana and Rebecca and live in Richmond, BC.
Man in Motion world tour
He started on March 21, 1985 from Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, Canada. Although public attention was low at the beginning of his trek, he soon became a worldwide media sensation as he progressed on a twenty-six month long trek that would log over 40,000 km through thirty-four countries on four continents before crossing Canada. He returned to Vancouver's BC Place Stadium in triumph to cheering crowds of thousands on May 22, 1987 after raising $26 million for spinal cord research. Like Fox, he was hailed as a national hero. Today, the wheelchair and many other items associated with the Man in Motion world tour are preserved by the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
Activism
Since then, he has been ardent activist for spinal cord research and paraplegic sports as president and CEO of the Rick Hansen Man In Motion Foundation.
In addition to the efforts on behalf of his association, Rick Hansen has also been a long-time supporter of fishing and environmental causes, and acts as Chair on the boards of the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society and the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund Society.
Awards and honours
Hansen shared the Canadian Athlete of the Year Award with Wayne Gretzky in 1983. In 1986, a private member's bill in the Ontario legislature renamed a remote township in Sudbury District, Ontario, previously named the Geographical Township of Stalin, in the athlete's honour as the Geographic Township of Hansen. (It is now within the boundaries of the municipality of Killarney.) Hansen became a companion of the Order of Canada on March 29, 1988. He was named commissioner general for the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 1990 in Australia.
- Order of Canada
- Order of British Columbia
- National Disabled Athlete of the Year in 1979
- Lou Marsh Trophy (with Wayne Gretzky) as Canada's Outstanding Athlete of 1983
- Doctor of Laws from UBC
- first incumbent of the Rick Hansen National Fellowship.
- two public schools have been named after Rick Hansen:
- Rick Hansen Secondary School, Abbotsford, British Columbia, and
- Rick Hansen Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario
- WAC Bennett Award (BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum)
Books written
He is the co-author of two books: the autobiographical Rick Hansen: Man in Motion, co-written with Jim Taylor (published in 1987, ISBN 0888945604), and the self-help book Going the Distance, co-written with Dr. Joan Laub (published in 1994, ISBN 1550541196).