Rick Hansen celebrates 30 years of completing the Man in Motion tour
Hansen completed tour on May 22, 1987, at Vancouver's Oakridge Mall
Thirty years ago, on May 22, 1987, Rick Hansen wheeled across a stage at Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, concluding his unprecedented Man in Motion world tour.
Over 26 months, Hansen — a decorated Paralympian and wheelchair marathoner — travelled 40,000 kilometres through 34 countries and generated millions of dollars for spinal cord research.
"At at the age of 29 when you embark on a tour and two years later you come back, it's everything that your dream might have imagined it to be. It was overwhelming. I was so grateful for Canadians the way they responded and people around the world," he said, speaking to CBC's On the Coast from Ottawa.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary, Hansen is donating his tour glove to the Canadian Museum of History.
"I selected one of the gloves, one of the battered gloves that showed the contact of my hand on the rim thousands and thousands of times," he said.
"No dream happens without incredible hard work and perseverance, an incredible team, and ultimately that glove is a symbol of a dream ... to live in an accessible country."
Listen to Rick Hansen speak with host Stephen Quinn on CBC's On the Coast:
The tour was only the beginning of Hansen's journey.
He went on to found the Rick Hansen Foundation and has advocated for accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities for years.
He says things have improved since the 1980s.
"I think there's a tremendous amount to be able to celebrate," he said. "Canadians have moved from considering [disability] as only a charitable issue to seeing it as a human rights issue now."
Hansen pointed out three politicians in B.C.'s legislature use wheelchairs and the federal Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, Carla Qualtrough, is legally blind.
"We see people who are educators and journalists, who are business leaders, who happen to have a disability."
Hansen says he is optimistic about the next generation.
He's currently in Ottawa for the first ever Rick Hansen Foundation Youth Leadership Summit, where 50 youth from across the country have been chosen to talk about accessibility issues and attend workshops.
"The youth of today are smart, savvy, and socially responsible," Hansen said.
"They have the ability to innovate, think out of the box, and connect networks. The world is so much smaller and the notion of a global movement that was almost impossible during my original tour is possible today. It's not one man in motion, it's many in motion and they're the hub of the future to get to the end."