Love him or hate him, he left a huge impression
Half-way up the mountain trail to the Great Wall of China, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan knew his engines were running low.
I’m not talking about the batteries in his electric wheelchair. I’m talking about the guys he hired to push him up to the iconic Chinese landmark.
“They were huffing and puffing,” Sullivan, just back from the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, told me yesterday.
“I think these guys were smokers and had been out drinking the night before.” But as the not-quite- Sherpas began to wilt, and Sullivan began to wonder if he’d be spending the night on a mountainside with the ghosts of Mongol invaders, something wonderful happened.
“A group of farm labourers — two men and about 10 women — just came out of nowhere,” he said. “One of the men said he recognized me from Turin.” Imagine that: So memorable was the mayor’s “Turin twirl” — when he accepted the Olympic flag for Vancouver at the 2006 Winter Games in Italy and famously did a pirouette in his wheelchair — that even farmers in rural China recall the image.
Seeing the difficulty he was in, the farmers immediately shouldered Sullivan’s “trail rider,” a sort of modified rick- shaw that allows disabled people to access hiking trails.
“I was suddenly lifted into the air and I was floating up the mountain to the Great Wall. It was like these angels had materialized like a miracle.
“I’m telling you — it was a moving experience. I was in tears.” It’s easy to understand Sullivan’s emotions these days. His single term at city hall is coming to end. And his experiences in Beijing, as both an Olympic-city mayor and an advocate for the disabled, have been poignant.
He was invited to a meeting a few days ago with the mayor of Beijing. But there was no wheelchair ramp when he arrived, so he had to be carried into Beijing City Hall while a Chinese TV crew looked on.
“Protocol is a big thing in China. The mayor apologized and I think he and his staff were a little embarrassed.” But talk about raising awareness.
His most personally meaningful moment occurred during the final Paralympic torch relay and officials asked Sullivan three times to remove his Team Canada jersey before accepting the torch.
Sullivan politely, but firmly, refused.
“I told them, ‘I’m wearing this for my country and for 140 Canadian disabled athletes,’ ” he said. “It was a symbolic gesture, but that’s often required of a leader.” They eventually relented and allowed Sullivan to carry the torch — Canadian colours and all. Whatever you might think of his brief and controversial time in the mayor’s chair, Sullivan has always done Vancouver proud on the world stage.
His final twirl in Beijing was no exception.
msmyth@theprovince.com
