Rick Hansen

Rick Hansen Web (I made it)

Rick’s life is remarkable because at the age of 15 he was in a car crash and survived. He had a spinal cord injury the doctors said he would never walk again. Even with such a challenge to overcome he decided to do something…. something that most people wouldn’t even think of. Most people would think that this couldn’t be done. He wanted to wheel is wheelchair around the world.

Rick Hansen (Internet)

August 26, 1957 was the date when Rick Hansen was born. He was born in Port Alberni, British Columbia. He grew up in Williams Lake. Rick was very athletic and loved sports. Fishing was his favourite. He is married to a woman named Amanda. They live in Richmond B.C and have three daughters. Rick also enjoys tennis, kayaking and skiing.

Rick in his wheel chair (I made it)

After the car crash he went home to graduate from high school. He really was focusing on mastering wheel chair sports. He put a lot of effort into being the first student to graduate with a physical disability in physical education from the University of B.C. He won nineteen international wheel chair events and became an elite wheel chair athlete. He didn’t stop there, he won three world championships and these events made him confident enough to go to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. His success motivated him to make a difference to people with a disability. He created the Man In Motion world tour. His friend Terry Fox inspired him. On his terrific journey around the world, Rick inspired others to follow their dreams. He went through 34 counties on his 40,072 km trip. He started in Vancouver on March 23 1985 on his trip to travel around the equivalent of the world’s circumference. He raised more than $20,000,000 for spinal cord injuries. Some of the countries he traveled through were China, Australia, Russia, and Great Britain. He returned to his hometown Vancouver on May 22, 1987. The tour took two years two months and two days. Rick Hansen wheeled 40,072 km and 13,831 of those kilometres were across Canada. This resulted in 94 worn out gloves, 104 flat tires and he also got gifts such as t-shirts, baseball caps, sweatshirts and pennants. Rick traveled about 120 km a day, which is about 9000 pushes.

Rick has received a lot of awards. He shared the Lou Marsh trophy as athlete of the year with Wayne Gretzky in 1983. In 1986 the township of Stalin in Ontario was renamed the township of Hansen. Here are some other awards he got:

I chose this person as my hero because when he got a spinal cord injury he didn’t just sit at home waiting to be cared for. No, he went out to care for others and to raise money for spinal cord research. I learned from Rick that if you really try hard at something you can make a difference in the world.