The World Competes

If you watched the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, you may remember the torchbearer who arrived in the stadium in a wheelchair, Rick Hansen. I didn’t know anything about him prior to the games, but it turns out, he has a pretty interesting story.

He became a paraplegic at the age of 15 when he ended up getting involved in a car accident. Hansen didn’t let that stop him. He earned a degree from the University of British Columbia, and became a paraplegic athlete, winning three gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze at the Paralympics in 1980 and 1984.

In 1985, he took a trek around the world in a wheelchair, visiting four different continents and travelling 40,000 miles over a period of 26 months. This “Man in Motion” tour raised more than $26 million for spinal cord research, and inspired John Parr’s song “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)”. That song reached number on on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. I remember the song, but I just thought it was a song at the time. Hansen’s journey will be the subject of a new movie, Heart of a Dragon, which is expected to be released later on this year. It looks pretty good: